The Severus Snape Advent Calendar, Take 7
by HappyAuriga
Summary: Just what the title says. A little fun while we wait for Christmas.
1. 1

Authors note: Well, my dears, it is a tradition...

…1…

It was Saturday, and the resident potions master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry indulged in his guilty pleasure, sleeping in. It happened only once or twice a month, if at all, that neither of his two masters had given him a task which required him to be up and about early.

Those two masters were, of course, Albus Dumbledore and the dark lord Voldemort, sworn enemies, only united in their recklessness when it came to ordering Severus around.

But that fateful December the 1st neither had requested the potions master to participate in some absurd plan to get the upper hand of the other. Therefore, Severus Snape stretched luxuriously when he woke and snuggled deeper into his pillow.

It was almost ten o'clock when he finally rose, not because he had slept his fill but because he needed the bathroom. Once he was up, he completed his morning ablutions and left his quarters for the Great Hall to get some breakfast.

One of the advantages of breakfasting that late was that the hall was as good as empty and a meal without several hundred children chattering nearby was pure bliss for any teacher. Snape expected the Great Hall to be completely deserted that particular day. Friday evening had brought the first snow and the children were certainly playing outside by now. He just hoped that Hogwarts' most difficult students – Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter who hated each other even more than Dumbledore and Voldemort – would not get into serious trouble before he had had his second cup of coffee.

It came as a complete surprise that every single seat at the Great Hall was occupied when he entered.

"Finally!" cried Potter who had no decorum at all.

"Severus, my boy!" cried Dumbledore. "Come and join us!" He pointed at Snape's empty seat in a grand gesture.

Snape looked around, dumbfounded. "Have I missed something?" he asked.

"Why my boy, it's the first of December! Everybody is curious to find out whether you have acquired an advent calendar this year!" Dumbledore beamed at him expectantly.

"I have not," Snape informed the hall at large. He poured himself a cup of coffee and reached for the toast.

"You have not?" cried Potter. "But why?"

"I never did anything to get one. They were always given to me," Snape pointed out. "This year I didn't receive one from anybody."

There was a murmur of disappointment in the hall and although he had done nothing wrong, Snape felt a little bad for the children.

"That can be remedied," the clear voice of Fred Weasley announced. He got up from his seat, his twin George by his side and stepped up to the head table.

"Professor Snape, may we present you with this advent calendar. It's only a little fun piece, nothing grand, but we thought it might be fun to have one again. You have to share it, though. And we request we get full account of the effects."

"Effects?" squeaked Snape. "What effects? What is this thing? What does it do?"

"I'm glad that you ask, Sir," replied George. "This is the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes advent calendar. The test version, to be exact."

"Every window holds a piece of chocolate laced with a fun potion," Fred continued. "We worked on it most of the summer. – Go ahead, open the first window."

"What does the potion do?" Snape asked suspiciously.

"Now, now, Severus," Dumbledore chimed in, "where would be the fun if they told you in advance."

"If you think I will ingest an unknown potion, you are mistaken," Snape snapped. "What does it do?" He glared at the twins in a way that would have most students in tears in seconds, but not the twins.

"We thought you were going to ask that," George took over from his brother, "but the headmaster is right. It would spoil the fun."

"Therefore, we mixed the chocolates before we put them into the calendar. We do not know which potions is in which window. We can assure you though, there is nothing dangerous in there."

"Open the window already!" Potter cried from his seat. Encouraging his fellow students with waves of his hands he started a chant of "Snape! Snape! Snape!"

"Severus, please!" Dumbledore pleaded. McGonagall and Sprout looked at the potions master hopefully.

"Snape! Snape! Snape!" tiny professor Flitwick joined the students' chants.

The potions master did some quick thinking before he grabbed the calendar – a smallish thing that looked just like a muggle chocolate advent calendar with a Christmas tree and red nosed reindeer picture – from Fred's outstretched hand. "You said I had to share," he pointed out. "I assign the first window to your sister, Miss Ginevra Weasley."

"Thank you, professor!" the Gryffindor redhead squealed excitedly. She pecked her boyfriend, Harry Potter, on the cheek before she rushed to the head table. When Snape held out the calendar, she clapped her hands excitedly before she opened the window and took out a small piece of chocolate wrapped in pink paper.

"Do I have to eat the whole thing or can I share?" she asked her twin brothers who were still standing by the head table.

"Go ahead and share it," said George. "But I wouldn't recommend to share with more than one person or you will get too small a dose to have a proper effect."

"I wasn't going to share with more than one," Ginevra cried. "Harry, would you like a piece of my treat?"

"As if he's going to say no," Draco Malfoy's bored voice was heard from the Slytherin table. "Not even Potter is stupid enough to refuse to share chocolate with his girlfriend."

"I heard that," Potter cried, "but I have more important things to do than quarrel with you." He took the bite of chocolate Ginevra held out to him and put it into his mouth without hesitation. Snape thought this was the single most heroic and stupid thing he had ever witnessed at the same time.

First there was no effect but after a couple of seconds, both Ginny and Potter's hair changed colour. They looked at each other and laughed. Both now sported Gryffindor colours, red and gold.

"See, Severus," Dumbledore pointed out, "completely harmless."

"For a Gryffindor," Snape replied. "Can you imagine the head of Slytherin with red and gold hair?"

The headmaster chuckled. "As a matter of fact, I can!"

The advent calendar was positioned on the Head Table in front of Snape's plate and Dumbledore cast a spell to prevent anybody from opening a window unauthorized.

Since the spectacle was over for the day, the students headed outside to play in the snow – Potter and his girlfriend without hats to show off their matching hair – and Snape got a quiet breakfast at last.


	2. 2

…2…

On December the second, Severus Snape was woken at an ungodly hour – at least in his book, actually it was a little past eight – by a soft but insistent knock on his door. He tried to ignore it but it was no use. Whoever was outside didn't give up. With a roar of frustration, the potions master left his cosy bed, threw on a bathrobe and stormed to the door.

"What!" he roared at the hapless person wanting to see him so early.

It was Albus Dumbledore himself, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Finally," the old man snarled, the ever-present twinkle missing from his eyes. He sailed past Snape into the living room of the man's quarters. "What are you doing in a bathrobe at this time of the day?"

"It's Sunday," Snape pointed out. "And I'm not on duty this morning. You woke me."

"Really, Severus," Dumbledore looked at his potions instructor over the rim of his glasses. "It's December. You have an advent calendar; the whole school is waiting for you."

"If you think I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn to open that blasted window every day until Christmas, you are sorely mistaken," Snape stood his ground.

"Ah," Dumbledore smiled benignly. "Here you err in two ways. Firstly, of course you are going to get up every day because I have reassessed our timetables and I realised that it is essential to the working of this school that you are on duty in the Great Hall every morning." He raised a hand to stop Snape's protest. "And secondly," the headmaster hurried to say, "you are not going to be there to open the window but to say whose turn it is. Remember, you have to share."

"The calendar was given to me," Snape growled. Not that he was suddenly eager to consume unknown potions provided by the Weasley twins but he hated being told what to do – often enough he had to obey either Dumbledore or Voldemort – and he was not going to follow this order without a fight. "It's my right to open windows."

"You can open one, like most years," Dumbledore cried. "Yesterday you didn't want to open it."

"I thought about it and changed my mind. I'm entitled to change my mind about my own advent calendar!"

"That's the problem with you youngsters," Dumbledore snapped. "You feel entitled. One," he repeated.

"Five!" Snape entered the negotiations.

"Two!" Dumbledore conceded.

"Six!" the potions master bargained.

"None!" Dumbledore was not going to be blackmailed. "I'm not going to be blackmailed!"

"You cannot be blackmailed in regards to my advent calendar. MY advent calendar! Ten!"

They met in the middle and when they finally shook hands on a deal of three windows for Snape, both wizards looked smug.

"This doesn't change, however," Dumbledore once again looked over the rim of his half-moon spectacles at the potions master, "that you are late for your duties in the Great Hall."

"You changed the schedule after I went to bed!" Snape raged at him. "I cannot be late for a duty I do not know about."

"Ah, ah, ah," Dumbledore wiggled his index finger at Snape, "once again you are wrong, my dear boy. You really must read your contracts more diligently. As head of house you are on duty 24/7. I can expect you to expect changes on short notice."

"I have a right to sleep!" Snape cried.

"It doesn't say so in your contract. Now stop arguing and put on something more suitable for breakfast. You cannot go to the Great Hall in your bathrobe."

"Watch me!" Snape spat at the old wizard. He stormed out of the door before the headmaster could stop him and stomped up to breakfast in his black bathrobe and pink bunny slippers (a gift from a girl who had apprenticed under him a couple of years ago).

There was an uproar in the Great Hall when the potions master stormed in in his unusual attire, the headmaster a couple of steps behind him.

"Oh, shut your mouths," Snape snarled at the student body at large as he made his way down the aisle between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables.

"Nice slippers, Sir," cried Draco Malfoy from the Slytherin side of the hall.

"They were a gift from an admirer," Snape spat at the boy. "My admirers may have questionable taste, but at least I have some. Unlike you." He walked to his usual seat in a flurry of bathrobe – he had to admit that the effect was more dramatic with teaching robes – and grabbed the coffee pot as soon as he had settled down in his chair.

"You have admirers, too, Draco," Pansy Parkinson reassured the blond. "I can buy you bunny slippers for Christmas if you'd like some. I think powdery blue would go better with your complexion than pink."

"I'm surrounded by imbeciles," the blond boy cried.

"Well, imbeciles tend to gather around the dumbest," Potter pointed out from the Gryffindor table.

The Malfoy boy didn't grace the remark with an answer. Instead he threw a stinging hex across the hall. Potter shielded easily against it and threw his own jinx at the blond. It never reached its goal because Dumbledore threw up a shield from the head table and collected the two boys' wands with one wave of his own.

"Really boys," he scolded. "Severus, this would be a good moment to open your window."

"I don't want todays window and I don't think we should open any windows before Potter and Malfoy have been expelled for throwing curses in the Great Hall." Snape was not one to miss an opportunity.

"Nonsense," Dumbledore looked at the boys benignly, "it was all in good humour. Now tell us who is to open the window if you don't want it."

"Hagrid!" Snape decided on the spot. "Hagrid should open today's window."

"Thank ye, professor!" the half giant cried. "That's so kind of ye!" He rummaged in his pocket and blew his nose in the huge handkerchief he retrieved from there. It took Hagrid a couple of minutes to calm down enough to open the window.

Today's chocolate was wrapped in green. Hagrid showed it to the assembled students before he unwrapped it and put it in his mouth. "This is good!" he cried. Only instead of his rich baritone voice, he suddenly sounded like a little girl. "Oh my!" he continued. "It's a good thing I don't have to teach today!"

The students laughed good naturedly.

"Hagrid," Harry Potter cried, "I have a question about that assignment you gave us last lesson!" All around the hall, students followed his lead and soon Hagrid was holding court at the end of Gryffindor table, answering questions about hippogriffs and flobberworms in his newly acquired angelic voice.

Those who had had their questions answered left the Great Hall in a merry mood. Harry Potter possessed the cheek to walk past the head table and point out to Snape that these were "truly remarkably cute slippers".

The potions master considered hexing the brat but it would probably – whom was he kidding, certainly – not go over well with Dumbledore, so he resigned himself to making the boy pay in his next potions lesson.

Potter's remark made him think of the young witch who had once given him those ridiculous slippers. Maybe, he thought, it would be nice to write her a Christmas card. Last he had heard of her, she had moved to Vienna.

Later that day, Severus Snape could be seen walking down to Hogsmeade wrapped in his warmest winter cloak. It would not do to use a school owl to take a card to Austria. No, this required a long distance owl. Once he had sent off his card, the potions master went to the Three Broomsticks for a nice cup of hot chocolate. He lingered as long as it would be considered acceptable. The Three Broomsticks was busy but it was a good kind of busy since no adolescents were involved.

About an hour before dinner would start in the Great Hall, Snape left the pub and in a bout of nostalgia went to the apothecary's to get some peppermint oil, his former apprentice's favourite potions ingredient.

After dinner he opened the small phial and put it on the mantle in his quarters. Soon the whole room smelled like it had smelled when the vivacious blonde had intruded on his privacy on a regular basis.


	3. 3

…3…

On Monday, the third of December, Severus Snape was the first to enter the Great Hall in the morning. He hurried up to the Head Table and poured himself a cup of coffee. A full English breakfast, nicely arranged on a plate decorated with a pattern of holly and mistletoe, materialised in front of him the moment he touched the coffee pot. The Hogwarts house elves knew that a quiet breakfast was the one advantage to being on breakfast duty in the Great Hall for a teacher, and they took special care with the resident potions master. It was, after all, common knowledge that breakfasting in peace and quiet was one of the few things that could improve his mood in the morning. (The other know things to achieve that were Malfoy and Potter in the hospital wing and out of his hair at the same time and Dumbledore cancelling classes which involved these two students.)

Snape had cleared his plate and was halfway through his third cup of coffee when the students started to arrive in small groups. The Slytherins wished him a good morning politely, to which their head of house replied with solemn nods, while the students of the other three houses knew better than to address the potions master with something as trivial as wishing him a good morning. Too well they remembered his rant at a hapless Hufflepuff firstyear who had followed the Slytherins' lead. The boy had burst into tears every time he saw Snape for three months.

The next teacher to arrive was McGonagall, and she did so when nearly all the students were present.

"Good morning, Severus," she greeted the potions master as she reached for the tea pot.

Snape raised his coffee cup in reply.

"My, my, we are in a good mood, aren't we?" McGonagall snapped.

"I'd like to see your mood when you had to be here at the crack of dawn every day for almost a whole month." Snape took a sip of coffee. "And not a single one of your colleagues shows their support by arriving at a reasonable time."

"Well, everybody knows that your presence alone is enough to keep the students in check," McGonagall pointed out kindly. "Consider it a compliment, Severus."

"I was not asking for help watching the brats," Snape huffed.

McGonagall wiggled her freshly buttered toast at the wizard beside her. "Are you telling me that you are complaining about the lack of company? I thought you liked your quiet breakfast. Had I known that you craved my company…" She smirked.

"Ha, ha," Snape rolled his eyes. "Am I asking too much if I hope for a bit of intelligent conversation once the students arrive? Since nobody came to distract me, I had to listen to an account of Gregory Goyle cutting his toe nails in the dark. I thought my ears were going to start bleeding."

"Really, Severus," McGonagall reached for the marmalade, "you haven't been a teacher since yesterday. You have to tune out such nonsense or you will go mad."

Snape didn't reply. How could he? It would be very unwise to tell McGonagall that as a spy he was trained to never tune out anything with so many deatheater children within earshot.

Dumbledore was the last to arrive. "Have you opened the window yet?" he asked instead of a proper greeting.

"No, not yet," Snape was just starting his fourth cup of coffee.

"Well, everybody is here, what are you waiting for?" Dumbledore discreetly waved his wand and the dishes started to serve him breakfast. Professor Flitwick squealed in surprise when the platter of eggs he was serving himself from rose in the air and glided to the headmaster's place.

"I have been thinking," Snape said carefully. "Will you take back the breakfast schedule if we open the window in the evening?"

"No, but you can have daily dinner duty in addition to breakfast," snapped the headmaster. He waved the platter of eggs back to Flitwick as quickly as possible. The spoon was still on its way back from his plate and had to hurry after the platter, leaving a trail of scrambled eggs on the table. "I'm sorry, Filius," the old wizard apologized to the small man, "I wasn't paying proper attention."

"No harm done, Albus," squeaked Flitwick. "No harm done." He reached for the spoon which had just reached its rightful spot on the platter. Dumbledore cleaned the table with another wave of his wand.

"Well, Severus," the headmaster said once the mess was cleaned up, "I suggest you open that window now."

With a sigh Snape got up from his seat. "Today I'd like Mr. Terry Boot of Ravenclaw to open the window of our advent calendar, as a reward for the best essay on the use of porcupine quills I have read in years which is not saying much but I have learned to be grateful for small things."

"Very sly of you," McGonagall whispered as Snape sat down. "They will be doing their homework more diligently if you hand out windows as rewards."

Snape didn't deign the remark with a reply. He was a Slytherin, of course he was going to use this to his advantage!

Meanwhile, Terry Boot had stepped up to the Head Table, under the applause of his housemates and Head of House who was beaming proudly. Snape held the advent calendar out for the boy and Boot removed a small candy wrapped in yellow from the window. He showed it to the hall proudly.

As he made his way back to his seat, his housemates looked hopeful, each longing to get a bite of Boot's treat.

"Padma," the boy beamed at the pretty witch, "would you like to share today's window?" There were disappointed looks as well as catcalls.

The girl beamed at Boot and nodded shyly.

Boot used a knife to cut the chocolate in half and they put it in their mouths on the count of three.

The effect was immediate. Both students turned into huge yellow canaries in a flurry of feathers. First they stared at each other in surprise but then they spread their wings and started a merry little dance.

"Hey! Pay attention with those tails!" cried Roger Davies as he barely managed to save his bowl of porridge from being swept off the table by yellow tail feathers.

"I'm allergic to birds!" announced Marietta Edgecombe and sneezed.

The two canaries looked at each other and then set out to cause as much mayhem as possible in the Great Hall.

Boot the bird frolicked over to the Gryffindor table, flapping his wings and twittering merrily. He used his wings to tickle Potter's nose while rubbing his cheek against the Weasley girl.

"Get your feathers off my girlfriend, Boot!" cried the wizarding hero. Boot pecked his hand when Potter tried to push him away from Ginny. "Ouch!"

Padma Patil was running up and down the various isles, touching people in passing with her wings. From time to time she stopped to tickle somebody with her tail feathers.

Most of the students laughed at the two birds' anthics.

"Misters Weasley," Dumbledore made himself heard over the ruckus, "may I ask how long this will last? If the calendar takes away students' ability to attend lessons, we may have to move the opening of the window to dinner."

"Don't worry, Sir," Fred Weasley cried from the Gryffindor table where Harry Potter was now wrestling with Boot, the canary, while Ginny was swatting at her boyfriend to leave the bird alone. "It won't last longer than ten minutes given that they shared the candy."

Padma Patil had now reached the Slytherin table and was now tickling the junior deatheaters. "Keep that up and I'm going to pluck you like a chicken!" snarled Draco Malfoy. His threat was answered with a peck on the head. The blond threw himself at the bird and tried to pull out some feathers.

"Really, Malfoy, fighting with a girl?" Potter was heard from the other side of the hall. The dark haired boy had let go of his canary at his girlfriend's insistence and Boot had continued down the table. He was currently dancing with the Weasley twins who were both flapping their arms as if they had wings, too.

Malfoy let go of the canary as if burned and shot a hex across the hall. Potter retaliated and Dumbledore had to intervene once again.

"Headmaster," said Snape, "you really can't allow them to throw hexes at the breakfast table on a daily basis!"

"I'm sure they didn't really mean it," Dumbledore reached for a blueberry muffin.

A couple of minutes later, Boot and Patil turned back into their true selves. "That was fun, Sir, thank you!" Boot cried from his seat.

Snape acknowledged the boy's thanks with a solemn nod. And then it was time to leave the Great Hall and go to lessons. The potions master sighed. His first lesson was double potions with Potter and Malfoy in it.


	4. 4

…4…

On Tuesday, the fourth of December, Severus Snape arrived to an empty Great Hall once again. Wonderful! He sat down and treated himself to some waffles with fresh strawberries, whipped cream and a sinful amount of chocolate sauce along with his first cup of coffee. Heavenly!

Once he had cleaned off the plate and licked his spoon clean, the potions master called for a house elf to remove the dishes. Common knowledge of his sweet tooth wouldn't do anything for his reputation. Therefore, Minerva McGonagall found him buttering a slice of toast, when she arrived shortly after the first students, a bunch of tiny Hufflepuffs.

"Jam, Severus?" the witch held out a jar offeringly.

"Really, Minerva," Snape replied solemnly, "you should know by now that I do not enjoy such frivolities."

The woman had the cheek to giggle. "Is that why there is chocolate sauce on your chin?"

Snape wiped his chin quickly. He just hoped neither of the Hufflepuffs had noticed the tell-tale stain on his face.

"You know that you are entitled to have a sweet breakfast now and then if you like it. Nothing to be ashamed of," McGonagall was clearly amused. "As a matter of fact, I think it's a great idea." She called for a house elf and told the small creature that she was "going to have what Professor Snape had."

Snape closed his eyes in defeat as the house elf snapped its fingers. "Severus!" McGonagall sounded scandalized and amazed at the same time. "This is… oh you secretive man! I had no idea that you had such splendid taste in breakfast dishes." She dug in with gusto.

"Why don't we put up a notice for all the students to read?" Snape asked through gritted teeth. His good mood was gone as quickly as it had come.

"I don't think our students care what you have for breakfast." The deputy headmistress purred as she bit into a strawberry covered in chocolate sauce.

"Naivety is not becoming for a woman your age," Snape snapped.

"What do you mean a woman my age?" McGonagall pointed her spoon at the younger teacher accusingly.

"Severus, you didn't!" Dumbledore chose this moment to make an appearance. "You never discuss age with a woman, no matter how young the girl is!" The headmaster lifted McGonagall's fingers to his lips and placed the tiniest of kisses on them. "Strawberries! What a splendid idea, Minerva!"

McGonagall waited for the headmaster to sit down and order his own portion of the sinful dish before she continued her attack on Snape. "Now tell me what you mean by 'a woman of my age'."

"I meant nothing more or less than to point out that you are a woman of experience. You have been teaching since before those children were born! Merlin, you have been teaching since before I was born!"

"Digging your own grave, Severus," Dumbledore muttered warningly as he added some extra chocolate to his already soaked in it waffles.

"Since before you were born? I'll give you since before you were born!" McGonagall raged.

"I did mean no offence, Minerva," Snape tried to save things. "Let me tell you how exceptionally well you aged!"

This time, the witch didn't reply. Instead, she sent a stinging hex at Snape's right hand in which he was holding his cup. Caught by surprise, the potions master dropped the cup and hot coffee spilled all over his legs.

"Aaargh!" he was up in an instant. "Was that necessary?" He cast cooling and cleaning charms in quick succession.

"Yes!" huffed the witch.

Snape sighed. "Let me offer you an olive branch. Why don't you open today's window of the advent calendar?"

"You would let me?" McGonagall glared at the wizard distrustful.

"I don't see why not," Snape held out the calendar invitingly.

This time, the piece of chocolate was wrapped in blue paper. The head of Gryffindor rose to the occasion by unwrapping it unceremoniously and popping the whole thing into her mouth without the slightest hint of hesitation.

The effect was immediate. One moment Snape was looking at McGonagall, the next he was looking at himself.

"What happened?" McGonagall asked. She closed her mouth with a snap when instead of her own voice, Snape's baritone came out of it.

Dumbledore transfigured a spoon into a small mirror and reached past the real Snape to hand it to his deputy. "I must say," he said calmly while McGonagall's face – or rather Snape's – went pale, "I'm quite impressed with the twins. That potion is very difficult to brew."

"Very difficult," agreed the real Snape, still dumbfounded.

"Do something!" cried McGonagall.

"Nonsense," the headmaster smiled. "If they did it right, and I trust they did, this will wear off before lunch."

"I can't teach like that!" the witch cried. "The children would be scared of me!"

As if to prove her right, a young Ravenclaw girl fainted at the entrance of the Great Hall when she saw two Snapes at the Head Table.

"I guess we should warn them," sighed Dumbledore. He conjured a note and sent it to the doors with a flick of his wand.

There was much muttering among the students during this day's breakfast. First of all, most of them had missed the opening of the window, and now one of their most loved teachers looked like their most feared.

Snape was unhappy. It was one thing to be the most feared teacher of the school but a completely different thing to have it rubbed in like this that nobody liked you.

It was Draco Malfoy who saved his day. Upon entering, he walked up to the Head Table, bowed formally in front of the two Snapes and said in his carrying voice: "In the name of Slytherin House I express our joy of now having two head teachers. If any teacher of this school deserved to be duplicated, it is you, Sir."

Snape – the real one – answered with a bow of his own. True, Malfoy was a little sycophant, but Snape had needed a reminder that there were some students who did not hate him.

All in all, that day was going to be remembered for a long time at Hogwarts, for it was the first and only day when Professor Snape – the false one – awarded points to Gryffindor while wearing witch's robes. Snape – the real one – did his best to make sure that the house of the lions didn't keep them.

Needless to say that everybody was quite glad when Minerva McGonagall turned back into herself on her way to lunch.


	5. 5

…5…

The next morning, Snape decided that it was time for him to open a window himself. The calendar had been given to him, after all. He spent the precious minutes before walking up to the Great Hall trying to decide when to do it. If he opened the window immediately, there were no witnesses and he could try to counter any unwanted effect the potion hidden within might have before anybody was any wiser. If he waited until everybody was there, especially some other teachers, there would be backup if he needed it. He was a potions master after all and had a better idea than your average witch or wizard, what you could do with potions. Even when you limited yourself to those which were technically harmless.

What worried him was that he could not be sure of Fred and George Weasley's abilities. True, they were good in his subject, better than most Gryffindor students, and they possessed the gift of intuition a potions master needed. But – and it was a big but – they refused to learn anything they could not use for their pranks. This meant they missed knowledge of the properties of ingredients they deemed not interesting enough while they were covered in his lessons, and they lacked practice in brewing techniques if they had come up in a potion they didn't find useful for them. So, what did those two know? Which mistakes did they make unknowingly? What could happen to him if he got a faulty brew?

At last Snape decided to open the window at once. He really didn't need anybody to see him with Gryffindor hair or something equally embarrassing and being a potions master, he could certainly go back to his quarters and whip up an antidote to any potion the Weasleys came up with before the students arrived. If anybody asked, he would say that the effect had already worn off and it was not his fault that everybody slept in.

Once he reached the Head Table, Snape poured himself a cup of coffee and opened the advent calendar window. The chocolate was wrapped in pink. Why was he not surprised to get something pink?

With a resigned sigh, the potions master popped the sweet into his mouth.

He had to admit that the chocolate tasted very good. They must have used some of Honeyduke's more luxurious products. Thinking of different kinds of chocolate made Snape think about how potions might cross-react with chocolate. Parts of the cocoa tree were used in potion making and the beans were certainly among them. Well, it was too late to think about that now, he had already ingested the brew.

With a resigned sigh Snape steeled himself and conjured a mirror.

Hm.

The wizard turned his head this way and that but he couldn't spot any effect.

"Interesting," he said, more to check his own voice that because he actually found this interesting. He sounded like always.

It seemed the twins had gotten this potion wrong. Snape smirked and made a mental note to cover the shelf life of potions in his next lesson with the two wannabe potions experts. Ah, he was going to enjoy setting them a long and detailed essay for homework.

A little later, the first students arrived, a bunch of third year Slytherin girls. They greeted their head of house politely before they settled down at their house table and dug in. Snape returned the polite gesture and helped himself to some bacon. Delicious.

He had not eaten more than a bite or two when there was a commotion in the Entrance Hall. Snape heard angry voices and the tell-tale whoosh of a spell, followed by an outcry of anger.

The potions master was on his feet immediately, he walked down the aisle between the Slytherin and Hufflepuff table with long strides, his robes billowing behind him. Whoever had disturbed his meal was going to pay for it.

In the Entrance Hall, he found – surprise, surprise – Malfoy and Potter with their wands drawn. Both had backup, Malfoy his whole dorm, Potter only his sidekicks. Snape was not sure who had the advantage in this case. Granger could probably wipe the floor with all four backup Slytherins singlehandedly. The only one not entirely useless in that group was Theodore Nott but the boy – while he certainly knew some good spells – was too heavy-handed to be a real threat to the Gryffindor know-it-all. Zabini was more interested in beauty spells than combat and Crabbe and Goyle preferred a good fist fight over a magical duel. But then numbers certainly could be an advantage.

Snape forced himself to stop thinking about the problem and approached the boys.

"What do you think you are doing here?" he snapped. He turned his back on Potter, relying on the Gryffindor sense of honour to not curse anybody from behind, and faced Malfoy. "Explain!"

"Potter insulted my family," Malfoy spat angrily. "He said… I can't repeat it, Sir. It was disgusting."

"This is not the time to be delicate, Mr Malfoy," growled Snape. "The punishment has to fit the crime and therefore I need to know what he said. Don't be afraid. I take it the others present have already heard it, and I promise to not repeat it to people who have no business knowing about it."

The Malfoy heir threw Potter a hateful look. "He said I owe my existence to a lust potion because my mother wouldn't allow my father to touch her otherwise," he whispered.

"Potter," Snape whirled around, "that was a despicable thing to say." Was the brat grinning at him? "How would you like it if Mr. Malfoy had said the same thing about you and your parents? – What is so funny?"

Potter and Weasley looked like they were going to burst with laughter, Granger even had the cheek to giggle!

"Sir," Malfoy said from behind him, "did you open today's advent calendar window?"

"Why, yes," Snape said. Was there something wrong with his appearance that could only be seen from behind? He touched the back of his head but his hair seemed alright. That, and he didn't believe that the twins had the skills required to take away a victim's hair only on part of the head. Aiming at small areas of the body with a potion was very advanced brewing and even when you were apprenticing for a mastery it was covered only very late into your learning. "How do you know?"

"That is a very majestic tail, Sir," Malfoy pointed out solemnly.

A tail!

In panic, Snape reached for his backside, and really there was undeniably a tail. The wizard pulled it around his body to inspect it. It could be called majestic, he had to admit. It was long and strong and covered in short black fur. At the tip sat a rich black brush of longer hair with a faint pink tip. It was beautiful. And entirely inappropriate for a teacher.

Snape let go of the offending new addition to his body and glared at the Gryffindors sternly.

"You will now proceed into the hall and have breakfast," he snarled.

"Sir, you were going to punish Potter!" Malfoy cried, clearly feeling cheated.

"Ah, yes. Thirty points from Gryffindor!" Snape glared at the students. "For each of you!"

"But Sir," cried Granger, "Ron and I didn't do anything! You can't punish us for going to breakfast!"

"I think I just did," the Head of Slytherin hissed, "and I suggest you continue into the Great Hall before I take more points!"

The Golden Trio admitted defeat and walked into the hall.

"Thank you, Sir," Malfoy said politely when his opponent and his friends were gone. "May we go, too, or do you need anything?" He looked at Snape's tail.

"No, thank you, Mr. Malfoy. I have everything covered," Snape allowed himself a half-smile.

When he walked back up to the Head Table, there were whispers among the few students who were already there. "Now all he needs is a trident and he can pass as the devil," he could hear somebody say. Was that Potter's voice?

"Severus!" Dumbledore must have arrived through the side entrance while he was sorting out Malfoy and Potter. "What a beautiful tail! It looks marvellous on you!"

"I think it's cute," McGonagall whispered when he sat down between the headmaster and the witch. "Is it as soft as it looks? May I touch it?"

"I will not be seen by our students having my tail patted by you," Snape hissed through gritted teeth.

"What a pity! It looks so cuddly!" McGonagall took a longing look before she reached for the toast.

"You will not cuddle with my tail either," Snape glared at the woman angrily.

"Now, Severus," Dumbledore made himself heard, and too loud by far for Snape's taste, "it really does look like it would be delightful to touch. You have to forgive Minerva."

"May I remind you that in all the years our deputy headmistress has been showing off her cat form in this castle, I have not a single time asked to cuddle or pet her?" Snape growled. "Is it asking too much to have the favour returned?"

"You forget, Severus," McGonagall smiled mischievously, "that I love to have my ears scratched when I am in cat form."

"That she does," confirmed the headmaster.

"You cannot pet my tail, and that is all there is to this," huffed Snape. "I'm going to retire to my quarters. I need to figure out how to teach with a tail."

"Yes, I see how having a tail could be problematic in a potions lesson," Dumbledore admitted.

Snape returned to his quarters. He shuddered to think what could go wrong if one of his tail hairs ended up in a student's cauldron, of what could happen if the tail knocked something over – the silly thing swished to and fro all of the time without the potions master's doing.

Book work it had to be until the tail disappeared. Snape sighed. If he made the students write essays, he had to read them. Then it struck him. He could make them research something and let them present their findings during the last part of the lesson. That way he had nothing to read and correct!

Plan in place, Snape sat down in front of the fireplace and asked the house elves for another cup of coffee.


	6. 6

…6…

When Severus Snape woke on the sixth of December, the first thing he did was reach for his backside to check whether the tail was still there.

It was not.

Thank Merlin and every powerful wizard that had ever walked the earth! When it had still been there after dinner, Severus had started to fear that it was permanent. It seemed that the effect had lasted that long only because the potions master had chosen not to share his chocolate with anybody. He made a mental note to do so next time.

After a lengthy shower – in the evening that cursed tail had gotten in the way all the time – Snape walked up to the Great Hall.

He pondered who to give today's window while he sipped coffee and enjoyed a full English breakfast. It would probably wise to choose a student because there were simply not enough adults at Hogwarts to cover all days to Christmas, and Snape just knew it was completely out of the question to give any windows to the Dark Lord or his followers. It would probably get the Weasley twins killed.

In past years, though, the Dark Lord had insisted to be part of the fun.

Hm.

It would probably be the best to give a window to one of the Deatheater children in Slytherin house. It would demonstrate Slytherin house pride and the parents of the chosen boy or girl would be grateful to Severus for honouring their offspring in front of the school.

When the tale of some silly potion was carried to the Dark Lord, he was going to see that this year's advent calendar was nothing he wanted to participate in.

Yes, this was probably wise.

So, whose gratitude would be of the most advantage to Severus Snape?

It was an easy decision. The Malfoys were rich and well connected. Lucius could certainly do a lot for a fellow Slytherin.

Decision made, Snape poured himself some more coffee and waited.

"Good morning, Severus!" This day, Filius Flitwick was the first teacher to arrive after the potions master, even earlier than the first students. "I was thinking you could use some company." The small wizard stared at the potions master's behind. "I see it is gone. How long did you have it?"

"To be honest," Snape replied between sips, "I can't tell. When I went to bed about two hours after dinner, it was still there and in the morning it was gone."

The Charms teacher chuckled. "At least it was a lion's tail, and apart from that bit of pink, it looked very impressive. It could have been so much more embarrassing."

"True," Snape agreed. "I wouldn't have wanted a horse tail or maybe a goat's."

"Or a mouse." Flitwick giggled.

"Well a mouse tail would have been easy to hide." Snape handed his colleague the platter of scrambled eggs.

"Have you decided who gets to open the window today?"

Snape nodded. "I was thinking it should be a student today."

"I was going to suggest it," the Head of Ravenclaw agreed. "The children would be disappointed if all they could do was watch the adults open the calendar."

Snape couldn't have cared less about the students' disappointment but of course he wouldn't mention that to the other wizard. Flitwick wouldn't understand the Slytherin way of thinking.

The potions master waited until all the students were there. While he waited he made small talk with his colleagues and occasionally he would interfere in students' quarrels to maintain an agreeable atmosphere during breakfast.

There was a commotion at the Hufflepuff table among the younger students when one of the boys didn't get any pancakes because another ate – in his opinion – too many. Snape ended the conflict by asking the house elves to provide more.

At the Ravenclaw table there was a quarrel about a potions book, three fifth year girls insisted they needed the book. Snape ordered the best potions student among them to take the book first and leave a note about which pages to consult in it when she was done. That way the other two were going to have to wait but they would get some help which was well worth the wait.

At the Gryffindor table there was nearly a fight and Snape didn't care why. He just took an exorbitant number of house points and ordered the fools to behave.

The Slytherins did – needless to say – not quarrel in public. While they were never averse to a run-in with the Gryffindors, Slytherins would not stoop low enough to carry a conflict within the house out of the dungeons. It just wasn't the Slytherin way.

Once everybody was there, Snape rose to his feet again and announced: "Since Slytherin was the only well-behaved house this morning, it will be one of their house today who will be allowed to open the advent calendar window." He paused to applaud his house. "Mr. Malfoy, if you please."

Malfoy strutted to the Head Table and made a show of opening the window and retrieving a candy wrapped in orange. He unwrapped it and consumed the chocolate before even returning to his seat.

The effect was immediate. One moment Malfoy was smirking in the direction of the Gryffindor table, and the next he was writhing on the floor in agony.

Snape was up in an instant. Lucius Malfoy was not going to appreciate his heir being tortured with poisoned sweets. He needed not have worried though. The whole ordeal was over as quickly as it started.

Malfoy went still and whispered: "My shirt feels too tight. Help me open it!"

Snape did as the boy asked and all the girls gasped when the blond got up from the floor, now bare-chested. Snape could see why.

The boy had now a pair of impressive white wings and in combination with his quidditch-toned torso and his tousled hair, Draco Malfoy looked like a fallen angel. A delicious fallen angel.

Being a true Slytherin, the boy was well aware of the girls' reaction and ready to milk it for all it was worth. He spread his wings carefully and a collective sigh went through the Great Hall.

"Oh Draco!" cried Pansy Parkinson, "you look… there aren't enough words to describe your beauty!"

"Thank you, Pansy," the blond walked back to the table, swaying his hips. When had the boy learned to walk like that? He sat beside the girl and wrapped a wing around her shoulder. The girl blushed prettily and snuggled closer.

Snape returned to his place.

"We should have an eye on Mr. Malfoy today," suggested the headmaster. "We wouldn't want him to use the effect he has on impressionable teenage females in an inappropriate manner."

"I have to agree," Snape admitted and resigned himself to following the blond between lessons and during breaks. Once again, his worries were uncalled for. The solution of the problem presented itself in the form of Colin Creevey of Gryffindor.

The boy walked up to the Slytherin table with his ever-present camera. "Malfoy, would you like a picture of yourself? You look spectacular with those wings. 5 sickles."

"Why not?" 5 sickles were as good as nothing seeing the amount of spending money the blond boy received from his parents.

"Oh, Draco, may I have one, too?" Pansy simpered.

"Ten sickles." Draco deadpanned.

"I'm sure many other girls would like one, too," the Creevey boy pointed out.

The rest of the day, Draco Malfoy and Colin Creevey were business partners. Draco posed, his wings around their – female – customers, while Colin took pictures. They made an impressive amount of money.

Snape proved once more that the was the most Slytherin of Slytherins by first making them pay a small tax of one sickle per picture into the Slytherin coffee jar and, after mentioning casually that he could help them make Creevey's pictures move, becoming the third partner in their thriving business.

Draco's wings disappeared during dinner, and the blond, Creevey and Snape spent the evening developing picture (which now cost a galleon). Both Slytherins insisted on extra copies for themselves – Snape as blackmail material, Draco maybe for the same reason.

All in all, Snape was pleased with the day's outcome. He had earned Lucius Malfoy's gratitude, he had earned enough money to pay for a luxurious meal at the restaurant of his choice and he had enough pictures to control half of the wizarding community for who would want a picture of their daughter hugged by a half-naked Draco Malfoy published.

The best thing was, in Snape's opinion, that any favour Lucius would not do him out of gratitude, he was certainly grant to avoid word about his son working as an erotic model getting out.

Oh, yes, Snape's inner Slytherin was beyond pleased.


	7. 7

…7…

Severus Snape was surprised to find his superior, Albus Dumbledore, at the Head Table when he arrived there at the crack of dawn the next morning, on Friday the seventh of December.

"Good morning, Albus," Snape greeted the old wizard and reached for the coffee pot.

The headmaster moved the pot out of Snape's reach with a flick of his wand. "Severus Snape," he snapped, "is it true that you participated in a despicable plot to fool our students out of their money?"

Snape did some quick thinking. "Headmaster," he then replied, "fool is the wrong word. Mr Malfoy and Mr Creevey of Slytherin and Gryffindor respectively, started selling pictures. I considered forbidding it but then I thought it was a delightful show of house unity and decided to permit it. Nobody was fooled. Everybody knew what they were going to get for their money."

"Rumour has it," the headmaster glared at his potions instructor, "that you were a partner in their so-called business. Did you or did you not take money from students?"

"Of course I did!" Snape made himself sound scandalized. "First I had to assist them with the developing potion – do you have any idea of the injuries they could have got if something went wrong with that? – and second I had to use school property for it since they had not enough ingredients. Of course I took money from the boys' earnings to replace what the school has lent them!"

"School property, you say?" Dumbledore lowered his wand and Snape snatched the coffee pot before the old man could change his mind. "The money will be used to replace everything?"

"Of course!" Snape hid his smirk behind his coffee cup. It was not his fault if the headmaster assumed that ALL the money was going to be used to buy ingredients for the school. What he had used from the store cupboards could actually be replaced for less than three galleons. But of course the potions master was not going to point that out. "Was this why you came here so early?"

"I was worried," Dumbledore admitted. "What if parents complain? What if the board of governors insists on removing you from the school? It would make your work in Voldemort's camp so much more difficult!"

Snape snorted. "Difficult? He'd probably kill me!" He helped himself to a hearty portion of pancakes and drenched them in syrup. Speculating about his untimely death always gave Snape a craving for sweet food.

Snape was just chewing on his first bite of pancake – he had covered them in a whipped cream and added a sinful amount of blueberries – when the first students arrived.

"So, who will get to open the window today?" Dumbledore asked. He looked at Snape hopefully.

"I was thinking a Hufflepuff," Snape replied. He certainly was not going to let the old coot open the calendar after the awkward discussion they just had had. "Hufflepuff house gets too little credit."

"I agree," nodded Pomona Sprout as she sat beside the potions master. "Those children are so hard-working and sweet; they deserve a reward. I'm sure they will be thrilled if you choose one of them."

This was why a half hour later, Snape announced Susan Bones the lucky person to open the calendar this day.

The girl fetched her prize from the Head Table – the sweet was wrapped in yellow – and returned to her seat. Her housemates applauded good-naturedly.

"Cedric," the girl said for everybody to hear and blushing vigorously, "since today is your birthday, would you like to share this with me?"

The Hufflepuff Quidditch captain beamed at the girl. "I'd love to, Susan!"

The two badgers made a show of dividing the chocolate in two and popping their piece into their mouths at the same time.

The assembled witches and wizards waited with baited breath.

They didn't have to wait long.

"Dance with me!" cried Cedric Diggory. He jumped onto the house table and held his hand out to Susan invitingly. The girl took it and Cedric helped her climb onto the table. "Music!" Diggory demanded.

Pomona Sprout waved her wand and music filled the hall.

"Tango!" squealed Susan, "my favourite!"

The Hufflepuffs grabbed dishes and plates to save them from what was to come. A couple of house elves appeared out of nowhere and helped the children empty the table. Meanwhile Cedric had conjured a red rose which he now held between his teeth. Susan had transfigured her school robes into a dancing dress.

The two Hufflepuffs beamed at each other for a short moment before Cedric pulled the girl in and off they were.

It was clear from the beginning that the chocolate had not only given them the desire to dance but also the ability. The young couple moved smoothly, as if they had been training for months. There was not a single step out of place.

Even Snape, although not a fan of ballroom dancing, had to admit that they looked good. The girl's dress hugged her figure in all the right places, the boy had a look of concentration and passion in his face like a professional tango dancer. Their movements were elegant and passionate and although certainly complicated, they were so expertly performed, it looked easy.

Dumbledore started the applause and the students followed his lead.

Cedric and Susan were not deterred. They continued their dance and when the first song ended they just moved on to the next one.

"Pomona, allow me," Dumbledore got up and beamed at the witch.

The Head of Hufflepuff curtsied and off they were, too. Of course the headmaster didn't dance on the table but behind it.

Again, the students followed his lead and soon the Great Hall was filled with tangoing couples. Somehow Snape ended up with Poppy Pomfrey in his arms.

"Severus," the witch breathed after a couple of steps, "I had no idea you knew how to dance!"

"My apprentice taught me," Snape reminded the matron. Pomfrey had certainly been the person to work most closely with the girl apart from himself. Once the small blonde had reached a certain point in her work, she had brewed most of the supplies for the hospital wing.

"Have you heard from her?" Pomfrey asked.

Snape shook his head, no. He certainly was not going to tell the school nurse – who was a close friend of McGonagall who was currently dancing with Filch – that he had written the girl a Christmas card in a bout of nostalgia.

The potion lasted for a total of five dances. When the effect ended, Diggory and Bones climbed down from the Hufflepuff table, both blushing.

"That was delightful, Weasleys!" cried Dumbledore after leading Sprout back to her seat and kissing her fingers in thanks. "Twenty points to Gryffindor!"

Snape glared at the old man. Of course he was going to use the advent calendar to help Gryffindor with the house cup. He made a mental note to award Slytherin an equal amount of points later.


	8. 8

…8…

Snape was woken by insistent knocking on his door the next morning. He swore under his breath as he padded to the offending door. Merlin help him, he was going to throttle Dumbledore if the castle was not on fire.

The sight of an irate Lucius Malfoy had the potions master wide awake in a matter of moments.

"Do come in, Lucius," he drawled and opened the door a little wider. It would not do to let a scene – and there was no doubt one was going to unfold in the near future – be witnessed by students. "To what lucky breeze do I owe the pleasure?"

"I'll give you a lucky breeze," the blond wizard raged. "Of all the teachers in this school, I thought at least you had some common sense!"

"I can't sort out things before I know what has your wand in a knot. Do sit down, Lucius, and calm down. Coffee?"

"I will not sit down!" Lucius raged. "You…!" He pointed an accusing finger at Snape.

The potions master was not going to give Lucius any advantage if they were going to quarrel, and looking neat as a pin while Snape himself was in his nightshirt certainly was one. "As this is going to take some time and I am on duty in" – Snape cast a tempus spell to check the time – "a half hour, let me get dressed before we discuss this any further. Whatever this is. Miffy!"

A small house elf appeared and Snape ordered coffee for two. "Make sure my guest behaves," Snape ordered. "Glue him to a seat if you have to."

When Snape returned to the living room clad in his usual black teaching robes and intimidating as ever, Lucius was pouring himself coffee. "Well?" the potions master sat and helped himself to a cup, too.

Lucius drew a deep breath. "Did you or did you not allow this to happen." The blond shoved a picture of his bare-chested son wrapping a wing around Pansy Parkinson at the potions master. He did not wait for a reply though. "The girl's father insists they be engaged immediately and get married after graduation. He claims the picture sullies the reputation of his daughter."

Snape opened his mouth to reply but Lucius stopped him with a raised hand. "A Malfoy bride has to have beauty, wealth and intelligence. At least two of them in abundance. Pansy Parkinson simply doesn't fulfil the requirements."

"I agree with that," Snape nodded. The Parkinson girl was not really a catch.

"Well," Lucius sipped some coffee. "What are you going to do about this? And I swear, if you don't find a solution, I'm going to bring this in front of the Dark Lord and have him order you to marry the tart yourself."

Snape splutter. "That would be most inappropriate!"

"Who cares! My son will not marry her. I will not have grandchildren … I don't want to even think about what kind of grandchildren I'd get if he married that girl!" Lucius raged. "Malfoys are not pug-faced!"

"I can assure you, Lucius, nothing untoward happened. They weren't alone for even a moment."

"It doesn't look like that to me. Neither does it to Parkinson."

"I'll have to confer with the photographer." Creevey had suggested the picture. It was only just that he was in trouble, too. Snape called for Miffy again and sent her to Gryffindor tower to get the boy.

Creevey arrived barely ten minutes later. His hair was tousled and his clothes had clearly been put on in a hurry. Snape bid him to come in and placed a cup of coffee in front of the boy who was clearly scared because he had been asked to a teacher's living quarters at the crack of dawn. Lucius's presence probably didn't help either.

Snape explained the problem and the boy calmed visibly. The two older wizards wanted to talk about his hobby! There were few at Hogwarts who were interested in photography.

"And if we cannot prove that the situation was entirely harmless, you'll have to marry Parkinson. Her father claims her chances for a good marriage have been ruined."

Creevey laughed. "Does he know that I am muggle-born?" He could not imagine a pureblood Slytherin insisting that he – Colin – marry his daughter.

"Be that as it may," Lucius said sternly, "what can be done about the picture."

The Gryffindor shrugged. "We could claim it was photoshopped."

"I don't think Perseus Parkinson will react well to the idea that the picture is on sale anywhere," Lucius pointed out.

The Creevey boy shook his head and then started a lengthy explanation about how muggles manipulated pictures. The two Slytherins were all ears. Some of the ideas were ingenious!

"If we can prove that a harmless picture can be manipulated into something like this," Lucius shook the offending photograph, "that certainly would take the wind out of Parkinson's sails. Can it be done with a magical picture?"

Snape had been in charge of developing the pictures, so he and Creevey had to discuss when and how to interfere with a magical picture.

"I think it can be done," Creevey said at last. He tasted the coffee.

The potions master and the boy conferred some more before Snape asked Lucius to sit near his fireplace. The potions master conjured a statue of an angel to stand behind the armchair. Creevey took a picture and then the teacher and his student disappeared from the room. The things for developing pictures were in one of the smaller labs which were usually not used by students but reserved for training apprentices.

They returned a half hour later and joined Lucius at the table. The blond had ordered a small assortment of waffles in the meantime. Snape reached for one, just to make clear who the master of this table was. "Good idea, Lucius," he praised the blond. "Creevey, show what we have done."

The boy cleared his throat before he placed a photograph of Lucius in front of a fireplace with a stone angel behind him in front of the blond. "This is the real picture," he explained. "We made a copy and used a couple of spells on it while developing it. This is the only copy of the manipulated picture."

He slid the manipulated picture towards the blond wizard, backside up. The Malfoy patriarch looked at it and blushed crimson. Somehow Snape and the boy had spelled his shirt off. The angel behind him had come to life somehow and was now sliding her hands down his chest from behind. The modest robes the stone angel had been wearing had been replaced by a scandalous piece of women's nightwear. The way the former statue held her head and her long hair covered most of her face, she could have been anyone. Narcissa, or somebody entirely different. Lucius swallowed hard. The moment the angel's hands reached picture Lucius's waist band, she flapped her wings and shielded whatever happened next from the spectator's view.

"If this can be done," Lucius admitted, "Parkinson has no case. He cannot even prove that it really is Draco in the picture." He pocketed both pictures. "Do you have any idea how much money we could make using whatever you used on my picture?"

"We would be rolling in gold," Snape admitted, "but I do not think the Wizarding World is ready for Magical Photoshop."

"Can you imagine what the Daily Prophet would do?" the boy added.

"Mr Creevey and I are going to take a vow to not publish the methods used." Snape glared at the boy and the Gryffindor nodded.

"Well," Snape got up from his seat, "I need to go to the Great Hall now. I'm on duty. Would you like to join me for a real breakfast?" he invited Lucius. The blond agreed and the small group walked up to the Great Hall. Creevey excused himself when they reached the Entrance Hall, claiming that Miffy hadn't given him time for a proper shower.

Snape and Lucius sat at the Head Table. The house elves provided a full English breakfast and an assortment of fresh fruit.

Dumbledore greeted Lucius friendly when he arrived. The man was a school governor after all. They discussed a donation for the school library that Hogwarts had received from an elderly witch earlier in the year.

"I take it there were a couple of interesting tomes among the rubbish she gave you?" Lucius drawled.

"Indeed, Lucius, indeed!" the headmaster enthused. "Some very old and valuable potions books and a small booklet full of ancient charms. They are, of course, only of interest for NEWT students, and only the best among them since the knowledge conserved in them is very specialised and difficult to understand, but it is a good thing to have special material for the gifted at hand."

Lucius agreed.

"I was thinking of using the not so interesting tomes to help some of our financially challenged families. We could be holding a bazar. Do you think that people would be interested?"

"You have the support of the board of governors if you decided to hold one. I'm sure we could get more donations of things to sell."

Most of the breakfast hour was used to discuss the idea and by the time everybody had finished eating, they had a plan. The headmaster asked Lucius Malfoy to come to his office after the meal to start organising things.

"We can go as soon as the window has been opened," the old man told his guest. "Severus?"

"Why don't you open our advent calendar today, governor?" Snape asked. His friendship with Lucius was too important for his standing within the Dark Lord's organisation to leave even a trace of bad blood between them.

"I would be honoured," Lucius hinted a bow.

The chocolate he retrieved from his calendar window was wrapped in a powdery blue.

When he ate it, there was no visible effect. When he turned to the headmaster, however, the effect became apparent.

Lucius had meant to tell the old man that he was ready to move their conversation to his office but instead a terrible screeching noise came out of his mouth.

Dumbledore screeched back enthusiastically. "I had no idea that you speak Mermish!" he cried, using the language he got to practice only on rare occasions.

"Mermish?" Lucius asked. "I was trying to find an interpreter for Mermish. I have business to do with the merpeople."

By that time the hall had been emptied of students who claimed they all needed to prepare for lessons. Snape could not begrudge them their flight. Mermish was truly terrible to listen to.

"How long does the effect last?" Lucius asked excitedly.

"I'd guess a couple of hours," screeched Dumbledore.

The blond was up in an instant. "Forgive me! I have to make use of this. I will return later to discuss the bazar."

Snape had not understood a word but his old friend looked excited when he rushed out of the Great Hall. "It seems he enjoyed his treat," he pointed out to Dumbledore.

"Indeed, he did," the old wizard chuckled.


	9. 9

…9….

After having lost his treat of sleeping in the day before, Severus Snape was determined to catch up on sleep on Sunday, the ninth of December. However, it was not meant to be.

Once again, somebody knocked on his door at the crack of dawn insistently. Snape tried to ignore the sound. He rolled over in his bed, pulled the duvet up and hid under the pillows. It was no use.

Furious, Snape stomped to the door and pulled it open with an angry snarl.

In sailed Lucius Malfoy, neat as a pin once again, magnificent Slytherin robes billowing behind him.

"Good morning, Severus!" he greeted the other wizard merrily.

Snape made a face. "Please tell me that you are not making this a tradition, Lucius! I need my sleep!"

"You can sleep at night," Lucius smirked. "The day is for business and making money."

"There is no money to be made in my living room," Snape pointed out.

Lucius looked around and turned up his nose. "You have a point," he admitted. "However, I did not come here to earn money in your living room. I need your help making money outside of Hogwarts."

"I don't know how I could help you there," Snape replied. He ushered Lucius back to the chairs by the fireplace and ordered coffee once again. Then he rushed to his bedroom to get dressed as fast as his dignity allowed.

"Well, explain what kind of business this is about," Snape asked when he made an appearance freshly showered and dressed in his teaching robes.

Lucius made a show of first taking a long sip of coffee. The potions master had to supress a smirk. Of course, any good Slytherin knew that it was unwise to appear too eager when it came to business, but did Lucius really think he could food the Head of Slytherin? The sneakiest snake of them all?

Snape decided to play along and reached for a cup himself. He poured coffee and then chose a biscuit from the small plate the house elves had provided as if it was the most important decision of his entire life.

"Well," Lucius started, but Snape stopped it with a raised finger of the hand hovering over the cookie plate. Lucius snapped his mouth shut and watched as Snape considered a gingerbread star for a little while before moving the hand to a small cube covered in chocolate and sprinkled with coconut.

"You were saying?" Snape asked after popping the chocolate thing into his mouth and chewing it very slowly.

"I want to know," Lucius snatched the cookie plate away from the potions master when the latter reached out for another treat lazily, "who made the chocolate that enabled me to speak mermish. It would be very useful for business."

"What is in it for me if I tell you?" Snape studied his fingernails.

"I could ask Draco; you know?"

"Indeed," Snape turned his hand this way and that to inspect his nails more thoroughly. "But then you would have to wait for the boy to come home for Christmas. That would be," Snape pretended to be thinking, "the twenty-first if I remember correctly."

"The twenty-fourth," admitted Lucius. "He usually insists on staying until the whole calendar is open. – What about a gift card for the Queen of Sheba's?" It was one of the Wizarding World's most fashionable and expensive restaurants and Lucius was a share-holder. Forty-five percent of the business was his if the potions master's sources were correct and they usually were.

"For two." Snape replied.

"Done." Lucius handed over a gift card. It was made from very expensive parchment which was luxuriously soft to the touch and the writing which announced that this card covered the cost for a seven course meal for two was done in gold. Snape didn't doubt for a second that this was real gold. In the right upper corner of the card sparkled a small diamond.

"The Weasley twins." The potions master pocketed his prize.

"I have to talk with them. I wish to place an order."

"What is in it for me?"

"I just gave you a gift card!"

"That was for the information of the maker's identity. I want free drinks to go with the dinner."

"Done."

Snape gave the gift card back and Lucius spelled it to say that drinks were included.

"Come."

The two wizards walked up to the Great Hall. "Dumbledore will be surprised to find you here two days in a row," Snape pointed out.

"I owled him yesterday evening. We still have that bazar to talk about." Lucius looked smug.

The headmaster was already present when the two Slytherins entered the hall. Lucius made a beeline for the old man and when Snape sat down, the two were already deep in a discussion about whom to ask for more things to sell for fund-raising.

"I think," Lucius was just saying when the Weasley twins finally made an appearance, "we should ask the Dark Lord. He likes the Christmas season and is always eager to be part of the community during the festivities. – Oh, forgive me, I have to talk to two of your students while you consider my suggestion."

Snape waited until Lucius had reached the Gryffindor table before he turned to the headmaster. "I don't think it's a good idea to ask the Dark Lord. Can you imagine what he would consider suitable merchandise? And if he gives something and you refuse to put it up for sale, he will be offended. It's too risky."

The headmaster looked pensive. "You have a point, but can you imagine the money we could make if his followers want to outdo each other when it comes to buying their Lord's contribution. I think we should have an auction for a couple of selected items."

Snape didn't deign this with an answer since he could tell that his superior had made up his mind. Resigned, he watched Lucius shake hands with the twins before he returned to the Head Table.

"Did everything go according to desire?" Snape asked when the blond sat back down.

"Indeed," Lucius looked very pleased. "I ordered Mermish and commissioned a research project for Gobledeegook and Harpy. Now, can you open that advent calendar window already? The headmaster and I have important matters to discuss."

"Indeed," the headmaster agreed. "Maybe you and Minerva should join us at my office."

Snape nodded and rose to his feet. "I think it is time for a student to open a window again," he announced. An excited murmur rose among the students. "Today it will be Mr Neville Longbottom of Gryffindor. I think that boy can do with a fun potions experience."

Neville blushed and then hurried to the front of the hall to get his treat. It was wrapped in silver paper. The boy didn't return to the Gryffindor table though. Instead he went to the Ravenclaw table where he shared the sweet with Luna Lovegood.

The moment they swallowed their chocolate, both students went limp and fell forward onto the Ravenclaw table.

Snape was up in an instant to help. When it came to potions accidents, time was often important.

The Weasley twins were up equally quickly. "No need to worry, professor," cried Fred Weasley. "They got the shared daydream. We should let them be. It won't last longer than a half hour."

Snape used a quick diagnostic spell to make sure that Longbottom and Lovegood were, indeed, not hurt. It was true. They were just dreaming.

Dumbledore asked Harry Potter and his friends to watch over the dreamers and then ushered Lucius Malfoy and his teachers to the headmaster's office to discuss their bazar. It was not what Snape had planned for his Sunday but it could not be helped.


	10. 10

…10…

The next morning – was it really the tenth already? Snape had to think of some serious Christmas shopping or he wouldn't be able to acquire those few gifts he shared every year in time – saw a very unusual guest in the Great Hall.

It was the Dark Lord in all his megalomaniac glory.

As a result of yesterday's discussion, Severus Snape had been sent to the Dark Lord to ask him for a contribution to the Hogwarts Charity Bazar. He had tried to talk his way out of the task by pointing out that Lucius was far better with things like that.

Miraculously, Dumbledore and Lucius Malfoy had been of one mind when it came to reprimanding the potions master for the suggestion. Dumbledore insisted that Lucius was needed to organise the bazar itself – they needed invitation cards, food stands and a bar – while Lucius acted offended at being considered a suitable choice for begging for donations.

Snape was livid but he was outvoted. Even Minerva McGonagall agreed with the two men!

Grudgingly, Snape had apparated to the Dark Lord's lair. It had taken almost two hours to explain the situation. The Dark Lord, always diligent when interviewing people, wasn't satisfied before he knew the whole story; advent calendar, Malfoy pictures, bazar plan, everything.

At last the evil wizard agreed to participate. His cooperation came, of course, with a price. Voldemort insisted he get to open an advent calendar window and that he got one of Snape and Creevey's magically photoshopped pictures. In return he agreed to not only hand-deliver a couple of things for the auction – he insisted that his donations were not going to even get near a common selling booth – but to also order his followers to donate and attend.

Snape had spent the meagre remainder of his Sunday instructing Creevey what to do and not to do with the Dark Lord's picture, and explaining to Potter that he was not allowed to kill Voldemort on the spot during breakfast. The boy was so dense! It was almost midnight when the potions master had given up on the case and had slipped the wizarding hero a hearty dose of dreamless sleep.

Now the Golden Gryffindor was snoring on Snape's sofa while the rest of the school was having the most awkward meal in Hogwarts' history.

"Say, Tom," Dumbledore addressed the Dark Lord as both wizards enjoyed some fresh fruit, "isn't it nice to sit here among the children? I really wish you would see the advantages of becoming a proper citizen for good instead of only acting the part before Christmas."

"If it wasn't for Santa's naughty list," Voldemort replied as he peeled a banana, "I'd have killed the lot upon entry. You are lucky I want my Christmas presents."

"My Lord," Snape interfered from the Dark Lord's other side, "may I suggest a change of topic? The faint-hearted could consider this a threat and threatening a whole school may cost you your presents."

"As always, you are watching out for me, Severus." Voldemort replied benignly. "Thank you." He reached for a small pitcher of chocolate sauce. "I didn't mean it as a threat," he assured the headmaster as he poured sauce onto his banana.

"I didn't take it for one," the old wizard waved it away. "I know you are a man of your word, and you promised not to curse anybody."

"Your students seem a bit subdued today," the Dark Lord felt compelled to point out.

Dumbledore nodded "They are not used to important guests. You have to forgive them."

Snape thought the students eating in silence was a pleasant thing.

When the Dark Lord had eaten his breakfast, the potions master informed the students that leader of the Dark was going to open an advent calendar window. Dumbledore had insisted on an unbreakable vow that the Dark Lord would not go after the makers of the calendar if he was not pleased with his gift.

The students would have preferred one of their circle to get the window but of course nobody said anything. Too scared were the children of being a target of Lord Voldemort's ire.

The Dark Lord made a show of opening the window and proudly presented his treat, a small piece of chocolate wrapped in red. He consumed the sweet immediately.

First there was dumbfounded silence but then Draco Malfoy got up and started to clap his hands. The Slytherins followed his lead, as did Dumbledore. Snape dutifully conjured a mirror and held it out to the Dark Lord. "It looks truly regal, my Lord," he told the dark wizard.

Voldemort gasped as he looked into the mirror. It had been some time since he had seen himself with a nose. And it was an elegant nose. Not too big, straight, a bit pointy but not too much. A real masterpiece.

"I wish to speak with the creators of this calendar. I want to place an order!" cried the wizard.

"I shall arrange a meeting at my office," Dumbledore replied quickly.

"Quick, Severus! I think this is a good time to take my picture," the Dark Lord cried.

The potions master did not point out that they could have magicked a nose onto picture-Voldemort. Instead he signalled Creevey and they took the Dark Lord to an unused storeroom in Slytherin territory.

"We have room to stage whichever setting my Lord would like," Snape explained.

Voldemort nodded in understanding. A couple of spells by the dark wizard and the storeroom was a cosy living room with a roaring fire and a Christmas tree. The man explained to Snape and Colin Creevey what he wanted and the two wizards added some statues to the setting.

The boy took several pictures. Snape was amazed how bravely the young Gryffindor ordered the Dark Lord how to pose, and how patiently and willingly the dark lord Voldemort followed his instructions.

Once the pictures had been taken, Snape accompanied the Dark Lord to the headmaster's office. The donations for the bazar hadn't been handed over yet. It had been agreed that this would be done while Creevey and Snape worked on the Dark Lord's pictures.

On his way back to Creevey, Snape instructed his morning class of Slytherins and Gryffindors to go to the library to research sleeping draughts. "I expect you to find at least three recipes for various durations of sleep. Discuss their magical properties and come up with a scenario when you would choose to use this particular one for each of them. – No, Mr Weasley, I do not know where Potter is. I'm not his warden."

Two hours later, Snape and Creevey came to the headmaster's office with their finished work. The Dark Lord was just signing a contract with the Weasley twins. His nose was gone again but no doubt he was soon going to have it back.

On Dumbledore's desk lay a small stack of books and a couple of magical objects the Dark Lord had brought for the bazar.

Voldemort was thrilled when Creevey handed him a total of three manipulated pictures. In one, a wizard whose face was turned from the camera was kissing the Dark Lord's feet. Going by the unruly hair, it could be Harry Potter. In the second, Bellatrix Lestrange was walking towards the Dark Lord's sofa with swaying hips, and in the third, Voldemort was surrounded by a huge amount of presents.

Snape was convinced that all three pictures could have been staged without manipulation but the Dark Lord was pleased, so who was he to argue.

Voldemort left a little later, his pictures happily clutched to his chest. For once, Snape was glad to be able to return to his dungeon classroom to teach.


	11. 11

…11...

On Tuesday, the eleventh of December, Snape decided that he deserved a treat.

First he slept until five minutes before his breakfast duty started. Miffy, the small house elf who usually answered to Snape's calls, woke him following the orders the potions master had given the evening before. Snape treated himself to a magic-enhanced shower (Spell the water warm, magic the soap and wash cloth to wash you at top speed, meanwhile spell shampoo onto your head, spell yourself dry; Snape was able to do all this within two minutes. As a spy you sometimes had very little time.). Then he rushed up to the Great Hall just in time.

Once he had reached the hall, Snape slowed down a bit. He reprimanded a group of Gryffindors for entering the hall before a teacher was present and took a not too small number of house points. When one of the boys tried to argue, Snape doubled the amount of points lost.

With a smirk, the Head of Slytherin took his seat at the Head Table. If the Gryffindors continued to come to breakfast that early, Dumbledore could as well hand the house cup over at Christmas.

"Miffy," Snape snarled after his first cup of coffee, "I crave something chocolaty."

The small elf smiled beatifically. "Miffy knows exactly what to make for master potions master!"

Five minutes later, Snape indulged in mousse au chocolat for breakfast. It was divine!

"Potter!" Snape scolded when the Gryffindor hero cried out angrily upon seeing the almost empty Gryffindor hourglass. "Five points from Gryffindor for disturbing your fellow students' meal!"

"Nobody feels disturbed!" protested the boy and his housemates – the only students present so far – nodded in agreement.

"In this case, twenty points for disturbing MY meal. And I do feel disturbed." Snape snapped.

"That's unfair!" Potter cried.

"Yes, indeed! It is unfair that I have to deal with your impertinence instead of enjoying my breakfast!" Snape stood his ground.

The younger wizard was not scared easily though. "Is that chocolate pudding you are having for breakfast?" he asked. "Why don't we get any?"

"Because I was good and you weren't!" Snape made a point of licking the spoon clean.

"I didn't do anything and you know it," Potter insisted. "After all it was you who drugged me. Don't try to deny it."

"It was for your own good," Snape pointed out. "The Dark Lord was here and you have a unique way of making people want to kill you."

"I never did anything of that sort!"

"I'd appreciate it if you'd sit down and shut up now. Some of us do want to eat their breakfast." Snape drawled just as Draco Malfoy and his friends entered the hall.

"Is Potter being difficult again?" the blond boy asked. "Potter, we are all here to enjoy breakfast. Why don't you sit down and have some food, too? And I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to see your face during my meal. Kindly sit so that you are facing the other wall."

Within moments, the two boys were involved in a shouting match.

The potions master watched in silence for a couple of minutes before he took more points from Gryffindor.

"Really Severus," Minerva McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindor, sighed when she sat down. "Is that necessary? Do we have to repeat this every week?" She rolled her eyes at her colleague and started handing out points to Gryffindor left and right.

"You can't award points for breathing!" Snape pointed out.

"But I just did!" McGonagall smirked. "And don't think I do not know that you take points for breathing to loudly on a regular basis. – Miss Patil, two points to Gryffindor for existing!"

Snape was not beaten that easily. "And three points from Gryffindor for existing on the same plane of existence as I!" he cried.

The fight would have gone on hadn't the headmaster put a stop to it when he arrived. With a wave of his wand he restored the score of the previous evening. "No house points can be given or taken for the next two hours," he declared.

Snape and McGonagall glared at each other. Their students did the same.

"Severus," Dumbledore changed the topic, "why don't we open the advent calendar window now?"

"An excellent suggestion," agreed Snape. "I have decided that I should get today's window." Without much ado he opened it and ate the chocolate he found in it. The sweet was wrapped in gold.

Snape shrieked.

"Severus, do you feel ill?" Dumbledore asked, worried.

"No!" cried the potions master, "but I now have x-ray sight! – I can look through non-transparent materials," he added when Dumbledore and McGonagall looked puzzled upon his first statement.

It was the witch's turn to shriek. "How dare you!" she folded her arms protectively in front of her. "Turn around!"

Snape obeyed. "You don't understand! I can not only look through your clothes," here all the female students shrieked, "I can look through you! All I see is your skeleton!"

"Wicked!" cried some of the boys.

"Disgusting!" cried some of the girls.

Snape had to agree with the girls. He found it disgusting to look at a hall full of skeletons having breakfast.

"With your permission, Albus," he said, "I'll return to my quarters. I'm afraid I won't be of much use here when I can't see the students properly."

The headmaster saw Snape's point and allowed it.

Back in his living room, the potions master poured himself a tiny amount of firewhiskey and sat in front of the fireplace.

When he saw it, he gasped. Where he had considered the mantle a solid piece of wood, he now could clearly see a hidden cavity.

He had to wait for almost an hour – it was a good thing that he didn't need to teach the first period that day – before his eye sight returned to normal and he was able to investigate.

The cavity could be opened with a simple alohomora, since the main part of its protection was the fact that nobody even suspected that it was there. The cavity held a small treasure: a journal with the notes of a potions master who had lived in the very quarters Snape occupied now many years ago.

Snape was excited. Oh, he was going to enjoy exploring this booklet! He hoped that the author had written his name somewhere or at least a hint which could help to find out his identity.

With a contented sigh, he pocketed the journal before he went to his classroom to teach the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first years how to use cat whiskers in calming potions.


	12. 12

…12…

The next morning Snape was up long before he had to. He had spent the evening reading in the little potions journal he had found hidden in his mantle and it had given him some ideas he wanted to try out.

The potions master ordered breakfast from Miffy – a bowl of porridge with chocolate chips and blueberries – and went over his plans once again.

If he started the experiment on Polyjuice potion today, the twelfth of December, and if everything worked as planned, the potions should be ready before the New Year. It would be a great improvement and the Ministry was going to pay him a fortune to get their hands on the improved recipe. The auror department used Polyjuice potion quite frequently for undercover operations. The preparations were more complicated than charms to alter an auror's appearance but once the potion was made, it was more reliable and the auror was not in danger of being exposed as long as he kept an eye on the time passing. With charms, you had to keep up the magic all the time which could be exhausting.

After a quick breakfast, the potions master hurried to his private laboratory and set up a cauldron. Today's part of the experiment was unspectacular. All he had to do was prepare the lacewing flies, heat them and then add some herbs before letting them sit. While the recipe normally required a fortnight of sitting time for the potions at this stage of brewing, the herbs were supposed to achieve the desired effect in only five days.

Once he had done what could be done the first morning of brewing, Severus Snape returned to his quarters to take a long and lazy shower. Lacewing flies were not among his favourite ingredients because they stank and you had to wash your hair at least twice to get rid of the smell.

The potions master massaged shampoo into his locks not two but three times, just to be on the safe side. Nevertheless, he managed to arrive at the Great Hall before the first student got there. He smirked. After yesterday's point taking fest, he didn't expect any Gryffindor to turn up anytime soon.

It was Filius Flitwick, however, to enter the Great Hall second. The small professor greeted his fellow teacher merrily and sat down beside him to enable them to chat.

"You seem to be in a good mood this morning," Snape remarked.

"I went down to the lake before I came here," the Head of Ravenclaw informed him. "The ice is finally thick enough to allow the students to go skating."

"Ah!" Snape reached for a tray of pancakes. "That's wonderful!" And indeed, it was. If the students went outside to go skating, it meant peace and quiet within the castle and since the potions master was on breakfast duty until Christmas, he was not going to be eligible for any skating proctoring duties until then. Knowing Dumbledore, Snape was going to end up at the lake after Christmas, but that was going to be a piece of cake seeing that most students went home after the last advent calendar window had been opened. How difficult could it be to keep Potter in check if there was nobody to join the boy's mischief.

"Are you going to volunteer?" Snape asked Flitwick.

The small man beamed. "Of course! I love figure skating! You should try it. It's very relaxing!"

Snape snorted. He had received skates from previous advent calendars, and while he had considered it fun to try skating for a couple of hours, it was not something he wished to pursue as a regular hobby.

The first students arrived and Flitwick waved to them cheerfully. The young Ravenclaws waved back but stopped when Snape glared at them.

"You will excuse me, Severus," Flitwick picked up his plate and cutlery. "I have to bring them the good news!" He didn't wait for the potions master's answer but hurried down to the Ravenclaw table to sit with his charges. There were squeals of delight a little later. Snape made a face. He would have loved to take points for disturbing the tranquillity of the Great Hall, but seeing that Flitwick was in the middle of the racket, he couldn't.

Once everybody had arrived, Snape chose Cho Chang of Ravenclaw to open the window of the advent calendar without much ado. He wanted to go back to his quarters to read in his new book as quickly as possible.

The girl left her group of friends who were still discussing figure skating with their Head of House and got her treat. Today, the piece of chocolate was wrapped in green.

The moment Chang had swallowed the sweet, she burst out in song. Her voice was sweet and the Christmas carol she was singing was beautiful. Her friends joined in after only a couple of bars. Dumbledore got up from his seat and sang along. Who would have guessed that the headmaster had such a carrying singing voice?

The Hufflepuff table was next. The whole house joined the choir as one; their head of house was beaming proudly.

Once the Hufflepuffs were singing, the Gryffindors didn't need asking. They made up with enthusiasm for what they lacked in talent.

Slytherin house certainly couldn't be goaded into singing by Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff but they were certainly not going to let Gryffindor show them up. Snape allowed himself a small smile. His charges were – unsurprisingly – much better singers than the young lions.

Of course he was not surprised. Carolling was an old tradition and therefore part of every pureblood Christmas. All his Slytherins had grown up with the old songs. They knew not only the first but all the verses by heart, and they had sung these songs at home from a young age.

The assembled witches and wizards sang for the better part of an hour. When Cho Chang stopped singing, the hall erupted in applause and cheers.

"Thank you, Miss Chang!" cried Dumbledore. "This was delightful! Music holds, and I do not tire of saying it, a magic of its own. Twenty points to Ravenclaw!" The Ravenclaw table cheered again. "And one point to every student who joined in!"

The Great Hall erupted in applause once again.

Once the ruckus had died down, the teachers shooed the children off to their lessons. Everybody was a little late because of the singing.

Snape cursed under his breath for not being able to read in his book before he had to start the first lesson but he hurried down to the dungeons, his robes billowing behind him more dramatically than ever, and prepared himself for taking a vast amount of points from Gryffindor for tardiness.

"Sorry, Sir," Ginny Weasley panted, as she and her classmates filed into the room shortly after the Slytherins had arrived, "we had to run up to Gryffindor tower to get our things."

"You should have thought of your school things before you indulged in pointless chanting. Ten points from Gryffindor for each of you."

"But Sir! You were there! The headmaster himself was conducting the choir! We could not very well not sing along!"

"Ten points from Gryffindor for suggesting to displease the headmaster!" Snape growled. Oh, they made it so easy! "Oh, and ten points to each Slytherin for being here on time and with their school books."

"This is unfair!" insisted the redhead, ever the Gryffindor, "their dormitories are much closer to your classroom than ours!"

"Ten points from Gryffindor for accusing a teacher of bias," Snape drawled and waved his wand at the blackboard to reveal the recipe for today's potion.

It was an easy one. Not even the Gryffindors should have trouble making it. With a contented smile, Snape settled down behind his desk and started to read his book.


	13. 13

…13…

On Thursday, the thirteenth of December, Hogwarts' potions master was once again to be found in his private laboratory before he had to go up to the Great Hall. He checked on the simmering lacewing flies and was pleasantly surprised to find them in a condition he normally would not expect at this stage of brewing. Judging by the colour, the potion looked like it had been started at least four days ago.

Severus Snape was pleased.

Once he had checked the polyjuice, he put up another cauldron in order to try out a potion he had found in his book before he went to bed the day before. If the journal was to be believed, the potion was going to remove birthmarks, freckles and other small pigmented moles. It was easy enough to brew, using only common ingredients. The tricky part was the use of rarely used stirring techniques. Of course those were not a problem for an accomplished potions master but they explained why this little brew was not part of every witch and wizard's brewing repertoire.

Snape allowed himself a small smile. If this worked out like he hoped, he should be able to make a nice sum on the side. A potion was preferable to a glamour charm at any given time after all.

Once the second potion was finished – the brewing was ridiculously short, now the potion had to sit undisturbed for three weeks – Snape once again took a shower and put on clean clothes for breakfast.

This time, he was not the first to enter the Great Hall. A flock of chatting Hufflepuffs was there, as well as a couple of Gryffindors, prominent among those Harry Potter and his friends. Snape thought it was amazing how fast the boy had forgotten the last loss of points. Did the would-be-saviour obliviate himself on a regular basis? The potions master chuckled softly as he walked down the aisle between the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables.

Immediately, the assembled students fell quiet.

At the Head Table, Snape met Dumbledore who had chosen to wear particularly gaudy turquoise robes that day. Small fish were embroidered onto the robes in various hues of silver and pink. They were hunted by a dark grey shark which was easily thrice as big as the other fish.

"Good morning, Severus!" the headmaster greeted his potions instructor jovially. "How are you this morning?"

"Quite well, headmaster. Thank you for asking." The potions master poured himself some coffee and helped himself to a plate of assorted cheeses and bread.

"I decided that we are going to have the bazar in the afternoon of the twenty-first. It's Friday, so people should have time and it's not so close to Christmas that nobody wants to buy any presents," the headmaster told Severus Snape while cutting a pear. "We also need to organise a Christmas party for the twenty-fourth. I know, in the years past we got our party from the advent calendar but we can't expect that this year. I was thinking of putting Pomona and Filius in charge since you and Minerva will be busy with the bazar."

"I agree that Pomona and Filius would be a good choice," Snape nodded. "Personally I'd rather be responsible for the bazar. I don't think I could deal with the party aspect of the party."

Dumbledore chuckled. "I thought so. We will need you to deliver the invitation to Tom though."

"That won't be a problem," Snape purred as he tried the Camembert cheese. "I expect to be summoned rather sooner than later. He will probably summon the whole organisation."

"Why so?"

"He agreed to help raise donations for the bazar and he's certainly going to outdo you. He will need all the help he can get." Snape sniffed a small bowl of cranberry jam. Cardamom and a hint of cinnamon. Just what he liked with his mould cheese. A carefully tasted dollop of jam revealed that there was also honey in it.

"You could be right," the older wizard agreed. "I wrote a couple of letters yesterday evening. Nicholas already sent a set of fifteenth century vials and a signed first edition of Methuselah Smyth's 'Your cat – ingredients on paws'."

"I shall remember to mention it when I'm summoned," Snape promised. "That should goad him into doubling his efforts."

"Excellent!" Dumbledore beamed and the fish on his robes performed a cheerful little dance until the shark leapt at them from under the lapel. "Excuse me now, I need to talk to Pomona and Filius about the Christmas party."

Snape nodded in understanding. His colleagues were going to need all the time they could get for the organisation of such a big event.

Once the potions master had finished his breakfast, he announced that he wanted Blaise Zabini of his own house to open the day's window. The boy's housemates applauded politely. Zabini got up from his seat and stalked to the Head Table with billowing robes in a good imitation of his head of house.

The day's treat was wrapped in light blue paper and Zabini didn't even consider sharing it. In hindsight, his housemates were probably glad he didn't.

"You are cute, Zabini!" Harry Potter cried from the Gryffindor table.

"Are you as fluffy as you look?" added Ronald Weasley and the whole table roared with laughter.

"You are going to pay for this, Weasley!" cried Zabini. Snape was not sure which Weasley exactly the boy was threatening; Ronald for teasing him or the twins for turning him into an oversized bunny, scut and all, or maybe young Ginevra for laughing like a hinkipunk.

"Oh Blaise!" simpered Pansy Parkinson, ignoring the boy's anger, "you look delightful! May I touch your ears? Please?"

Zabini complied, of course. Draco Malfoy scooted over to make room for the other boy. Pansy squealed with delight when she touched Zabini's ear. "It's even softer than I thought it would be!" Pansy squealed.

Other girls came closer to inspect the giant Zabini-bunny. The boy clearly enjoyed the attention.

Snape made a mental note to mention to Lucius that Pansy had thrown herself at Zabini when he next saw him. That way, Parkinson's claim for Draco to marry his daughter was certainly null and void.

Later that day, the potions master saw Zabini surrounded by Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw girls. Only the Gryffindors were not interested. He suspected that the Weasley twins had promised samples of the potion for the evening. At least it was what he, Snape, would do in his place.

The potions master's plan to keep an eye on Gryffindor house that evening did not work out though. In the evening the anticipated call to the Dark Lord's side came.

The meeting was exhausting. The Dark Lord had discovered the joys of cookie baking a couple of years ago, and this year he wanted to indulge in the sweet pleasure again. Since not a single person among the deatheaters had experience with muggle baking techniques, the responsibility for the actual baking rested with Snape and he had spent hours by the oven.

It was worth it. In the end he returned to Hogwarts with dozens of cookie tins filled with the Dark Lord's gingerbread men and Vanillekipferl. In addition to that, he had made an appointment for Dumbledore to pick up several crates of rare books and magical items.

It was imperative that the headmaster do this personally, since anything donated by the Dark Lord had to be considered dangerous and should be checked over by a very powerful wizard.

When Snape finally was able to retreat to his bedroom, it was well after midnight.


	14. 14

…14…

On the fourteenth, Snape was once again woken by a knock on his door.

It spoke clearly of how tired he was, that the potions master opened the door with a tired "What is it?" instead of the tongue-lashing an early intruder usually had to expect.

In the corridor stood Draco Malfoy, hair still tousled from bed, clad in a powdery blue silk bathrobe, silvery pyjamas and light grey fur slippers. "I'm sorry to disturb you, Sir," the Slytherin said politely, "but the squid is here."

Snape was wide awake in an instant. He rushed to his desk and grabbed a small satchel which sat there waiting just for this occasion. "You did right, Mr Malfoy," the potions master informed his student. "An opportunity like that can under no circumstances be passed over." He followed the boy to the Slytherin lair, dressed in only a grey night shirt.

Most of the house were assembled in their common room. A seventh year prefect transfigured scraps of parchment into slippers and a robe, which Snape shrugged on in passing when it was held out offeringly.

The majority of the students didn't even notice that their Head of House had entered the common room in very inappropriate attire. Everybody was staring at the glass wall separating the room from the Black Lake. Instead of the usual fish and occasional Grindylow, the Giant Squid was basking in the relatively calm waters next to Slytherin house.

Outside there must be a heavy snow storm, Snape knew, because these weather conditions were the only ones which lured the squid to the glass wall. Usually the cephalopod avoided coming too close to the castle.

One of the older students put a small table next to the edge of the glass wall and Snape put his satchel on it. He opened it and retrieved a handful of dried ham. The potions master showed it to the squid and the beast reacted at once.

The squid went wild at the sight of the special treat. It whipped its arms, beating up bubbles, and banged its head against the wall.

The younger students who hadn't seen the spectacle yet oohed and aaahed. It was understandable because the squid was magnificent in its quest to get the treat.

Snape showed the ham again and again, whenever it seemed the squid was getting frustrated and losing interest. After maybe twenty minutes it happened.

The giant squid shot a jet of ink against the glass wall.

Snape acted at top speed. He opened the small flap in the wall beside the glass wall with a spell only the Head of Slytherin and the headmaster knew. A quick summoning charm, and a bucket that had come out of the satchel earlier was filled with one of the most expensive potion ingredients in the world. Another spell and the ham Snape had used to goad the squid was sent to the water.

The potions master closed the flap – not a single drop of water had come into the room – and covered his valuable bucket with a lid of dragon hide.

Meanwhile, the children watched in fascination as the squid feasted on the dried ham.

"Well done, house," Snape addressed his students once the squid had consumed the last scrap of food and returned to basking in the water lazily. "My thanks to those of you who assisted me directly. Now let's honour our ancestors by remembering those who worked for making the house prosper. Who wants to tell the story of the construction of the squid flap?"

A third year girl, Valeria Bulstrode, a cousin of Millicent, was the fastest to raise her hand.

"Miss Bulstrode, please, do the honours," Snape smiled at the girl.

"In the third year after the foundation of Hogwarts," Valeria recited the ancient tale that had been passed from Slytherin to Slytherin for centuries, "the most noble of the founders, installed the viewing wall as a reward for his students who had accumulated more house points in the past school year than all the other houses combined." Valeria made a small pause to allow the Slytherins gasps of admiration – and the gasps always came although every student but the youngest knew the tale by heart. "The following winter students told him about the giant squid who had turned up in front of the wall during a heavy winter storm. Salazar Slytherin realised immediately what a great opportunity it would be to collect potions ingredients from the squid. He started to work on a plan to collect ink of squid but his legendary discord with the other founders kept him from ever completing it."

The little girl made another pause and all the Slytherins bowed their head in remembrance of their founder's efforts.

"The following years were hard for the house because the other houses still had their founders and Slytherin had not. One of the teachers, Sapientia Firwald, stepped in as head of house but it was not the same. Madam Firwald succeeded in protecting the students and helping them to maintain their high level of accomplishments but she was unable to work on the squid project with the other founders picking on Slytherin house all the time.

It was almost one hundred years later, that the project was picked up by the then head of house, Valeria – I'm named for her" the girl inserted into the tale proudly" – Algerton. Madam Algerton built the flap in order to lure the squid to the wall on days when there was no storm. That did not work, but in the fifteenth year of Madam Algerton's leadership of Slytherin house, during the most vicious storm the castle had had to withstand to that point of history, the giant squid expelled a jet of ink when it was fed dried ham. Madam Algerton was quick to summon the ink through the flap and ever since then it is the Head of Slytherin's most noble duty to collect ink of squid when the beast turns up during a storm."

The students applauded politely when Valeria finished her story. "Who wants to tell us Madam Algerton's legacy?" Snape asked when the clapping had died down.

It was tradition to give that part to an older student.

"Mr Crabbe," Snape chose.

"Madam Algerton," Vincent Crabbe said solemnly, "decreed that the ink is to be parted into four equal portions. One is to be sold to fund the house. One is to be used to teach the Slytherin students how to use it in potions. One is to be given to the headmaster for the whole school's benefit, and one is to be kept by the Head of House for their personal brewing."

"And?" It was tradition to end the story where Crabbe had and let the head of house ask for the last bit to point the youngest students to the importance of this part.

"And the House of Slytherin has to stand as one in leading the headmaster to believe that he got the whole lot." Crabbe beamed and the students laughed.

"Well done! One hundred points to Slytherin house!" Snape applauded the students at large. "I suggest we meet in twenty minutes by the statue of Madam Algerton to show some house unity when we go to breakfast."

Snape turned on his heel and returned to his quarters, bucket and satchel hovering after him.

Twenty minutes later, he led the whole house into the Great Hall. Only a couple of teachers, the headmaster among them, and a couple of students of other houses were already there. Snape presented the headmaster with a big crock of ink of squid.

Later, the potions master would have loved to give the advent calendar windows to one of his Slyherins to make a good day even better but he had chosen a Slytherin the day before and the headmaster would certainly resent him if he chose two in a row. Therefore, he asked Hermione Granger of Gryffindor to open it. He couldn't ignore the Golden Trio completely after all.

The girl thanked the potions master politely before she opened the window.

She took the chocolate back to the Gryffindor table and shared her treat with the Weasley boy.

Ronald Weasley's hair curled and turned bushy like Granger's immediately while the girl's hairstyle didn't change at all.

"That's really bad luck that you got that one, Hermione!" cried Fred Weasley.

"See, even with magic your hair can't get any worse!" crowed Draco Malfoy from the other side of the room.

Potter was up in an instant, wand in hand, but Granger beat him to it. Before even a teacher – among them several excellent duellists – could react, she had hit the Malfoy heir with a jinx.

Parkinson handed Draco a mirror and the blond shrieked when he saw his now bushy mop of hair.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor for cursing a student!" cried Snape. He turned to the headmaster. "Don't you dare give those points back! The loss is well deserved."

The old wizard looked sad but he had to agree. And although Snape was sure that the old coot was going to find a way to award Gryffindor make-up points later, he still thought this was going to be an excellent day.


	15. 15

…15…

On Saturday, the fifteenth of December, Severus Snape was determined to sleep in. He had left orders with Miffy to not wake him unless Dumbledore was on fire. He had informed his prefects that he expected them to handle any problem that arose before noon, and last but not least he had talked McGonagall into swapping duties with him. The Head of Gryffindor was going to proctor breakfast and inform the school that today's window was going to be opened after dinner while Snape was going to patrol the corridors in the evening, a duty he preferred because it usually enabled him to take vast amounts of points from the other houses.

It came as a bad surprise that his mark started to sting even before the crack of dawn.

Snape cast a tempus spell and cursed under his breath. Then he remembered that nobody could hear him in his own bedroom and he cursed to his heart's content while putting one robes.

The potions master sent Miffy to Albus Dumbledore to inform him that he, Snape, had been called. It was important information because today was the appointment for the headmaster to pick up the donations that Snape had deemed worthy of a check by the most powerful wizard alive.

After making sure that the elf understood that Albus Dumbledore needed to be woken immediately, Snape walked down to the gates and apparated the moment he had left the wards. He allowed the pull of the mark to carry him to his master.

To his utter surprise, he materialised in one of the bigger bedrooms of Malfoy Manor. Lucius was there, sitting in an armchair looking uncomfortable, and the Dark Lord… Was he modelling robes for the blond?

"Ah, Severus!" cried the evil wizard. He held out his arms and turned on the spot to show the light grey robes he was wearing. "Just the man that I need. Today, Dumbledore will come to pick up some things and I have no idea what to wear. Lucius is not being helpful."

Snape wanted to throttle the man. "My Lord, you look regal in anything you wear," Snape pointed out.

"Not you, too!" cried the Dark Lord. "I don't need another sycophant. I need somebody with good taste who will honestly tell me which robes are best!"

"I shall do my best," Snape promised. He conjured an armchair matching Lucius's and sat beside the blond.

"Well," Voldemort growled, "what do you think of these."

"Regal," Snape deadpanned. "They emphasize your lithe build and the sleeves' cut make your shoulders broader. The colour is very fitting for winter. However," he hurried to say when the Dark Lord's brows knitted angrily, "there may be a colour which goes better with your complexion. Let's see what else you have got and put the robes you are wearing on the maybe stack."

"See, Lucius!" Voldemort cried triumphantly, "it's not so difficult!"

He disappeared into the walk in closet and for a couple of minutes the two wizards could hear him rummage. When he reappeared, Snape had to contain a snort of laughter.

"No, my Lord," he hurried to say, "that colour is not for you. While it looks good, it is also something Dumbledore would wear. I even seem to recall seeing him in orange and turquoise. He would think you want to copy him."

"You are right!" cried the Dark Lord and disappeared into the closet again.

Lucius looked at Snape in admiration. "I don't know how you do it," he admitted. "Any other of his followers would have been killed for saying that."

"My Lord knows that I have his best interest at heart," Snape said proudly.

"Indeed, Severus, indeed," cried the Dark Lord from the cupboard. "Arrgh, can somebody help me? I'm caught!"

Snape steeled himself and walked into the cupboard. The dark wizard had managed to twist the robes he was trying on so badly that they were wrapped around his head, catching his arms at an awkward angle. The potions master ignored the fact that the man had chosen to go commando under his robes – Snape decided on the spot that he needed to create a potion which erased single pictures from the mind – and pulled on the seam of the robes gently.

"That colour is a much better choice, my Lord," he made small talk while he worked diligently on freeing the older man without hurting him. "It goes well with your complexion. There we go! Oh, and I like the details on the front. They go with your eyes."

Voldemort looked down at his chest. "I have a nosebleed, idiot!" he cried.

"I have a potion for that." Snape held out a vial and mentally praised the day he had given in to his apprentice's pleas and started to carry an emergency potions kit in his deatheater robes. "And I stand with what I said. The red pattern on the front goes well with your eyes. Do you have anything similar with the pattern not made with your blood, my Lord?"

The Dark Lord had silently taken a sip of the potion and handed the vial back to the potions master. "I think I saw something like that. Go back to Lucius!"

Snape returned to his seat beside Lucius. The blond was sweating and shaking. "This is going to get us killed!" he whispered.

"It won't," Snape hissed back under his breath. "We just have to find robes for him."

The two wizards had to wait for almost a quarter hour – Snape wished he had coffee but didn't dare ask Lucius for some – before their master remerged from the closet. He was now wearing robes of greyish green with a pattern of red on the chest and shoulders. It looked like the wizard had come back right from a stabbing.

"That's an excellent colour, my Lord!" cried Snape and clapped his hand. "Can you turn around to give us a better impression of the cut?"

Voldemort did a turn and Snape could tell he liked those robes by the way the dark wizard wiggled his behind when he showed the backside of the garment. "Wonderful!" Snape praised.

"Just the right thing to show off your athletic body," Lucius chimed in. "Not many wizards are in that good shape once they are past thirty."

"Yes, I thought the same," agreed Voldemort. "Let's have breakfast now, shall we?"

"Certainly," Lucius got up and resumed his role of master of the house instantly. "If I may." He went ahead of the other wizards. Snape made up the rear of their small group.

Breakfast at Malfoy Manor was pure bliss. First of all, there were no chattering children around. Lady Narcissa joined the three men at the table and there was only polite conversation with periods of silence in between. Secondly, while the Hogwarts house elves were great cooks, they were also under order to provide healthy meals and offer varying choices of dishes, the Malfoy elves were under no restriction when it came to spoiling the guests with their favourite foods every time they saw them.

That was why Snape found buttery waffles with an assortment of berries, whipped cream and a sinful amount of chocolate sauce beside his cup of strong hot coffee.

Lucius went for eggs and bacon, the Dark Lord had pancakes with syrup and Lady Narcissa enjoyed ham and cheese.

After breakfast, Snape was excused to return to Hogwarts. He went to the headmaster's office dutifully to inform the man of what had happened.

"Make sure to remark on his excellent choice of robes," he ended his report, "if you want to help my standing with him."

"I shall, Severus, I shall." Dumbledore promised. "The students missed you dearly at breakfast today."

Snape could not return that sentiment. He hadn't missed the brats one bit.

"Make sure that you do not miss another," the headmaster said sternly.

"I shall do my best," Snape promised before he returned to his dungeons to catch up on some sleep.

Later that day, he helped Albus Dumbledore unpack the boxes full of donations. The old wizard put aside a couple of items which would probably hurt their buyer. Snape could tell where they came from for most of them. He considered it a good sign – and the headmaster agreed – that not a single dangerous item came from the Dark Lord's personal donation.

In the evening, the potions master declared Albus Dumbledore the person to open the advent calendar window before the meal had started to relieve some of the tension in the room.

The headmaster beamed at him. "It is costumary to wait for dessert to have sweets but I think an exception is in order." He chuckled merrily as he unwrapped his treat and put it in his mouth.

Fascinated, Snape watched the old man assume the colour of his background.

"Look," cried Dumbledore, "I'm a human chameleon!" He got up from his seat and stood in front of the stone wall. His skin turned grey. The old wizard squealed and rushed over to the Ravenclaw banner. His skin turned blue. Slytherin banner – green. Hufflepuff banner – yellow. Gryffindor banner – red! "This is fun!"

It was fun for the students, too, because only the headmaster's skin and hair changed colour but not his robes. It looked like empty robes were rushing through the Great Hall as the old wizard played with his new ability.

Snape just hoped that the effect was going to wear off before curfew.


	16. 16

…16…

When Snape entered the Great Hall on Sunday, the sixteenth of December, he stopped short the moment he had first seen the Gryffindor House Table. There were two dozens of empty robes sitting there, shovelling food to where the face of a person wearing those robes would have been. There was laughter. A lot of it.

Snape made a face before he continued up to the Head Table.

"Good morning, Professor!" chorused the robes and dissolved in fits of giggles.

"Fred and George Weasley!" the potions master ordered. "A word!"

Two sets of robes got up from the Gryffindor table and approached him.

"Did you give chameleon chocolate to your house mates?" Snape growled. "You must be aware that the consumption of potions without orders from the school nurse or the potions master is forbidden in this school!"

"There is no such rule," protested one of the robes. "We looked it up. We can brew and sell whatever we like as long as it doesn't harm anybody. There is no harm in this innocent bit of fun."

"No harm?" growled Snape. "Use your heads!"

"We don't have heads!"

"You do. They just assumed the pattern of the background so that I cannot see them."

"If you can't see them, it's as good as if we didn't have any," one of the twins pointed out.

"You can't even be sure we are us," the other twin added.

Snape gritted his teeth. That's what he needed. Students of whose identity he couldn't be sure.

In the meantime, Draco Malfoy and his group had made an appearance.

"Are you hiding from me, Potter?" crowed the blond.

"Why would I?" somebody got up at the Gryffindor table and Snape could tell by the wand which was hovering in front of one sleeve that the person in question was really Potter. The potions master allowed himself a moment of triumph. He knew the wand of every single student in the school, he didn't need to see any faces to know who was who.

"Because you are too scared of me to show your face," Malfoy teased.

Potter laughed. "You are just jealous because nobody in Slytherin can brew cool potions like these."

"We can brew much cooler potions than you. We just don't use our skills for childish stuff."

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose to stop a beginning head ache. Maybe if he got a big dose of caffeine and quick? He poured himself a cup of coffee and downed it. Quickly, he refilled his cup. Yes, coffee helped.

The potions master decided to ignore the shouting match between Potter and Malfoy. With a calm he didn't really feel, he buttered some toast. He ate one slice and a second before he looked up from his plate again.

"Enough!" he ordered. The two boys fell silent. "As much as I appreciate your assessment that potions are cool," the potions instructor smirked at Malfoy, and Potter's robes, "I'd prefer to have breakfast in silence. Sit down and behave as is fit for wizards of breeding. Potter, try to imitate Mr Malfoy."

The blond smirked. "I know how to behave without imitating the ferret!" cried the wizarding hero.

"Prove it," Snape challenged. Whatever made Potter shut up for the rest of his meal was acceptable for the teacher.

It worked for almost five minutes.

Then somebody at the Gryffindor table transfigured a piece of cutlery into a white ferret. The small beast scurried up and down the table and accepted gifts of bacon from the students with a high trilling noise. Some girls remarked how cute the ferret was.

"Potter!" roared Malfoy.

"What?" Potter's voice asked innocently.

"What are you doing with that ferret?" the blond boy shouted.

"Why do you care? Is he a relative of yours?" Potter drawled in a manner that counted as 'imitating Malfoy' in Snape's book.

Snape never learned what Malfoy was going to reply because at that moment the headmaster entered the Great Hall.

"Tell me that you didn't open the calendar without me!" the old man cried.

"Headmaster," Snape greeted the wizard solemnly. "We didn't. The Weasley twins sold chameleon chocolate to their housemates." He pointed an accusing finger at the twins' robes.

"Is there any left?" the headmaster asked excitedly and rummaged in his pocket. "I have three sickles and four knuts!"

Before the twins could enter negotiations with the old wizard, Snape stopped them with a raised hand. "Headmaster, for a school to function it is imperative that the teachers can see the students. You have to forbid the consumption of that product!"

"But it's fun," the headmaster insisted in a small voice.

"Then tell them that they can only play chameleon in their common room." Snape stood his ground. He was not going to deal with as good as invisible students on a daily basis.

Dumbledore beamed. "That's a splendid idea! I hereby decree it a new school rule that chameleon chocolate is limited to house territory! This rule applies starting tomorrow."

"Headmaster!" Snape urged.

The old man shook his head, sending his beard dangling. "It would be completely unfair to declare a behaviour against the rules when the students cannot change it. Now calm down, Severus, and tell us who is to open the window today."

For the potions master it was clear that it was not going to be a Gryffindor who opened the advent calendar today. Hmmmm, who to choose?

"Pomona Sprout," he announced at last.

The kind Head of Hufflepuff beamed at her colleague. "Thank you, Severus," she breathed. The witch was used to being overlooked. It happened frequently with Hufflepuffs since they were quiet and hard-working. They excelled at many things but never made a fuss about it while other houses bragged about their accomplishments even if they were small compared with the badgers'.

Sprout opened her window and took out a green wrapped piece of chocolate. She made a beatific face when she let the treat melt on her tongue.

"Wow!" cried one of her students from the Hufflepuff table.

"Wow, indeed," muttered Snape.

The Herbology Professor had started to grow the moment she had put the chocolate in her mouth and when she stopped, she stood to nearly twelve feet.

The witch clapped her hands. "I need to prune several trees in greenhouse four today!" she cried happily. "Excuse me, I want to make use of my new size while it lasts. Oh, I will be so much quicker!" She rushed to the door and a couple of her seventh years followed her. Snape assumed they had agreed to help their head teacher.

"Headmaster," he said, "since you are here, may I ask you to take over the hall? I'm out of a couple of ingredients and Professor Sprout's pruning may provide me with some things that I need."

"Yes, yes, Severus," Dumbledore waved his potions master towards the door. "Everything you can get from the greenhouses, we don't have to buy."

Snape didn't need to be told twice. With a quick nod he followed his colleague and left the headmaster to deal with the mayhem he was sure was going to ensue sooner or later.


	17. 17

Author's note: Life has become more busy than expected. Sorry that this is so short. Things should be back to normal on Wednesday.

…17…

The next morning – it was already the seventeenth of December and Christmas was just around the corner – Snape was greeted by a very disgruntled Albus Dumbledore at the breakfast table.

"Good morning, headmaster," the potions master greeted his superior. "You are early. Did I misunderstand you? Were you going to take over this morning's breakfast duty, too?" If Dumbledore had told him in advance about that, Snape would have been able to sleep in for a bit.

"Definitely not, Severus," snapped the headmaster. "I came here early to inform you about some recent additions to the school rules."

"New rules?" Snape asked. "Don't you need the board of governors' consent for that?"

"Not if I declare it an emergency." Dumbledore said strictly. "There are two new rules, actually. Firstly, I banned chameleon chocolate for all students. And secondly, it is strictly forbidden to take off your clothes while under the influence of chameleon chocolate."

"What?" Snape spat coffee over the breakfast table. It was a very undignified display and he was glad that no students were present.

"You heard me alright," Dumbledore knitted his brows.

"Who would take their clothes… don't tell me. I don't want to know!" Snape changed his mind in mid-sentence.

"What do you not want to know?" McGonagall asked as she sat down on Snape's other side.

"The headmaster added two new rules," Snape explained, "and I decided that I do not want to know how the idea crossed his mind."

"New rules?" McGonagall asked and made a sour face. "Why didn't you discuss the idea with me? Usually you appreciate my opinion."

"It was an emergency," Dumbledore said apologetically and explained about the new rules.

"What? Why?" McGonagall cried.

Snape tried to ignore his older colleagues but as much as he tried, he couldn't but overhear the tale how Harry Potter had had the idea to take off his clothes to sneak up to Draco Malfoy and scare him. It seemed that the Gryffindor had been hit by a spell and Dumbledore had spent the better part of two hours trying to find a body-bound, chameleon-camouflaged Harry Potter.

"How did you find the boy?" McGonagall asked.

"Don't ask," Dumbledore sighed.

Snape smirked. "I never asked. How long did the potion take to wear off? Two hours maybe?"

"A little more," Dumbledore admitted.

"You found him when the potion wore off?" McGonagall's brows almost disappeared under her hairline.

"Technically I didn't find him. A couple of girls found him. I only realised they had him when I investigated a bunch of girls trying to talk the Creevey boy into lending them his camera."

"They didn't!" cried the Head of Gryffindor.

"No, I intervened in time," Dumbledore huffed. "I had to take house points!"

Snape didn't hear more because at this moment, a Slytherin prefect came running up to the Head Table to inform him that Malfoy and Potter were at each other's throat in the Entrance hall. The potions master was up in an instant and hurried to the Entrance Hall. On his way, he awarded the prefect twenty points for fetching him.

Once in the Entrance Hall, Snape summoned the fighting cocks' wands. "You should be ashamed," he scolded, "the younger students look up to you and look what an example you set! Potter- fifty points from Gryffindor for fighting in the corridors! Malfoy – detention with me tonight after dinner! Bring dragon hide gloves!"

"Why doesn't he lose any points?" Potter whined.

Snape glared at the boy. "Would you rather serve detention with me, Potter?"

"No!" cried the boy. "May I go to breakfast now, Sir?" He retreated to the Great Hall, his group of friends in tow, as soon as Snape had given permission.

Once the fight was broken up, Snape returned to his seat.

A little later, he told the assembled students that the day's window was going to a Ravenclaw student as a reward for Ravenclaw being the only house to not misbehave the day before. The chosen student was going to be Luna Lovegood.

The blond girl thanked the potions master before she ate her piece of chocolate.

The effect caused some younger girls to shriek with fear.

Luna Lovegood's skin took on a greenish hue and when she opened her mouth to comment on the change, a jet of fire that would have made any dragon proud came out of it.

"Miss Lovegood!" cried Dumbledore, "whatever you do, do not attempt to speak! I'm afraid you will have to spend the morning isolated from the rest of the students until the potion wears off!"

The girl nodded in understanding.

"Severus, I will leave the responsibility for Miss Lovegood with you," the headmaster got up from his seat before the potions master could protest. "I have a meeting with Tom. He wants to introduce me to his personal tailor." And off he was.

Snape sighed in resignation. "Miss Lovegood," he said, "come with me. I'll assign you a room where you can wait until the potion wears off. Oh, and Misters Weasley, twenty points from Gryffindor for causing a student to miss lessons."

"What!" The twins protested but Snape was not deterred. Even McGonagall had to agree, that the two trouble-makers had gone too far with that potion.

Luna Lovegood had to spend the whole morning in an empty dungeon classroom. Snape gave her a book on the use of dragon fire in potions making to read. (He was almost burned when the girl tried to thank him.)

In the evening Snape made Draco Malfoy cut up Manticore liver for a potion he wanted to experiment with. All through the blond's detention, Snape dreamed of a quiet evening with his new potions journal in front of his fireplace.


	18. 18

…18…

On the eighteenth, the headmaster informed the assembled students that the advent calendar window was going to be opened after dinner.

"We cannot allow another student to miss lessons due to the calendar," the old wizard said solemnly. "Nor can we risk a teacher to be hurt. We had a narrow miss yesterday with Miss Lovegood and Professor Snape yesterday."

There was a murmur of disappointment. Snape glared at the students. He was certain that they were disappointed that he had not been roasted by the young Ravenclaw and not because they had to wait all day to learn about day's advent calendar window.

"I must thank you, Severus," the headmaster said when he sat down, "that you took care of Miss Lovegood. I wouldn't want her to have to deal with the guilt she would feel if she unintentionally hurt somebody."

The potions master glared at the headmaster instead of the students.

"And of course I wouldn't want to see you hurt!" Dumbledore hurried to add.

Snape huffed but decided to change the topic.

"How did your clothes shopping with the Dark Lord go?" he asked innocently.

"Oh yes, Albus, do tell!" McGonagall sat beside Snape.

"Marvellous!" Dumbledore cried excitedly. "You must come up to my office later! I had no idea that Tom Riddle was such a fashionista! Madam Malkins came to Malfoy Manor with a couple of employees and samples of materials. Lucius had it all organised within a half hour. Tom and I had barely finished our first cup of tea before the fun started."

"Did you get anything?" the head of Gryffindor house asked curiously.

"Of course! I got two sets of robes. One for the bazar and one for the Christmas party. Tom got two, too. That man has a fantastic waist. He can wear almost anything. I must admit I'm a bit jealous."

"You may not have his waist," McGonagall said soothingly, "but your shoulders are better."

"Aww, you know how to console a man," Dumbledore beamed at his deputy. "Thank you, Minerva."

After a quiet morning – Snape had only lower year classes to teach – and a busy afternoon – the potions master spent two hours sorting through the potions text that had been donated for the bazar to see if there were any from which the students would benefit more if they were added to the library rather than sold – Snape was looking forward to dinner. He was famished.

The whole school came to the meal early. The students abandoned their snowball fights and snowman building on the lawn in favour of seeing what was in the advent calendar.

"Well, Severus, since everybody is so curious, why don't you tell us who is going to open the window today!" the headmaster said kindly.

The children waited with baited breath.

"Do we really want to risk that the vic… person who opens the window misses dinner?" Snape asked. He hadn't had time to think about who to choose in the afternoon.

"True," Dumbledore agreed. "But I had a talk with the Weasley twins, and they say that there is nothing dangerous in the remaining window. The dragon fire was the riskiest potion they used. Therefore go ahead, Severus. Name someone."

Snape contemplated the assembled students. Who to possibly deprive of dinner?

"Harry Potter," he then announced.

There were small cries of disappointment from the other house tables but the Gryffindors clapped and cheered for Potter as if he had committed another act of heroism.

The boy thanked his housemates before he went up to the head table to get his treat.

The piece of chocolate was wrapped in red that day. Snape asked himself whether the Weasley twins had the chocolates colour-coded but so far he hadn't been able to identify a pattern.

Potter took his prize back to his house table and shared it with his girlfriend.

Once again, the assembled witches and wizards didn't have to wait long for the effect.

Potter sprouted antlers and furry brown ears. Snape smirked when he imagined the boy with a deer's tail. His nose turned into a snout.

Ginny Weasley, on the other hand, grew pointed ears. Somehow her brothers had managed to brew a potion that changed her body in a way that caused the impression of her wearing a Christmas Elf's costume. Snape couldn't but be impressed.

"May I pet your ears, Harry?" Lavender Brown asked.

"No!" snapped Ginny. She glared at the other girl and her boyfriend in turn.

"What!" cried Potter, "I didn't do anything!"

"You encouraged her," Ginny pointed out.

"I didn't do anything. How can I have encouraged her by not doing anything?"

Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy had organised his group of friends. Before Ginny Weasley could explain female logic to the wizarding hero, the blond started to conduct a little choir. They sang "Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer" at the top of their voices.

"What a splendid idea!" cried Dumbledore. "A nice song always brightens the day!" He sang along with gusto.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Potter shouted.

Snape had to admit that the boy looked adorable when he was part reindeer and angry.

"Where is your Christmas spirit, Harry?" Dumbledore interrupted his singing.

"This has nothing to do with Christmas spirit!" insisted the boy wonder. Ginny Weasley nodded vigorously.

Snape chose a slice of roast veal from the platter in front of him. No need to let the meal go cold just because Potter was throwing one of his tantrums.

"Headmaster, can you hand me the potatoes?" Snape asked.

The old wizard did as he was asked but didn't interrupt his discussion with his favourite student. "Of course this is about Christmas spirit! Come on, Harry! You have to join the fun!"

Snape saw disaster in the making and hurried to wolf down his meal. He had barely eaten half of what was on his plate, when the first curses flew.

"This behaviour is disgusting!" McGonagall cried. "Fifty points from Gryffindor and fifty points from Slytherin! For each student who used a spell on a fellow student."

Snape did a quick headcount. Malfoy, Parkinson, Zabini on the Slytherin side. Potter, four Weasleys and Finnigan on the Gryffindor side. Excellent!

Since Snape was not on duty during dinner, he left the Great Hall as quickly as possible. He returned to his quarters and sat in front of the fireplace with the potions journal he had found. This book was the most interesting he had read in quite some time.

Opening the calendar in the evening, he thought, was a splendid idea.


	19. 19

…19…

On the nineteenth of December, Severus Snape got up early enough to check on his potions in the private laboratory before breakfast.

The polyjuice potion he was trying to brew following the recipe in the small journal he had found was getting along nicely. It was the right colour and even the smell was as it was to be expected at this stage of brewing. The only difference to the normal process was that only half the time had passed. Snape smiled, a pleasure he allowed himself only in the privacy of his own rooms. If this continued to go so well, he was going to make a small fortune.

The second potion, the one Draco Malfoy had slaved away for in his detention, was ready to decant. It looked like the journal said it was supposed to look and the consistency seemed to be right, too. Snape had never brewed this particular potion before and therefore was excited to try it out. He filled the brew into dose-sized vials and put them on a shelf. Hmmmm, where to find a volunteer?

Snape decided he needed to think about that for a while. If the potion worked as supposed, it was imperative to choose carefully.

The potions master checked the fire under the polyjuice cauldron one last time – everything was perfect, of course – before he returned to his quarters to get ready for the day. There was enough time to take a lengthy shower and put an extra dab of moisturizer on his hair. Snape loved that stuff. It smelled of apple and cinnamon and left his hair soft to the touch.

In a good mood, Snape went up to the Great Hall.

As he had hoped, the hall was still empty. Since Dumbledore had moved the calendar opening to the evening, there was no reason for the students to come to breakfast any earlier than they absolutely had to.

With a happy little sigh, the potions master settled down in his usual chair and poured himself some coffee. He prepared a plate with eggs, bacon and sausages, everything cut up into pieces, so that he could eat using only a fork.

That done, he pulled his little potions journal from a pocket of his robes and started to read.

He still had no idea whose journal this had been but the person must have been an exceptional potioneer. Their opinion on the use of thestral tears in sleeping aids was interesting and Snape had to admit that the unknown potions master made a couple of good points.

"Good morning, Severus!" Dumbledore greeted the Head of Slytherin merrily when he arrived, McGonagall in tow.

"Good morning headmaster. Minerva." Snape hinted a bow to the lady. He closed his book and put it back into his pocket.

"What were you reading?" the witch asked.

"A potions book," Snape reached for his cup.

"Did you find it among the donations for the bazar?" Dumbledore asked.

The potions master shook his head. "It's one of mine. I acquired it a couple of weeks ago and had no time to read the whole thing because I had so much homework to correct. But," Snape added to distract the old wizard from his journal, "I made some interesting finds yesterday." He dove into a detailed description and discussion of a set of two books on personality altering brews. "They belong into the restricted section, of course," Snape ended his monologue.

"I agree." Dumbledore nodded and McGonagall followed his lead. "Our NEWT students could benefit greatly from them but we have to give the privilege of studying them to only our best students. The methods discussed in these books are extremely complicated."

"Some even on master level," Snape added for McGonagall's benefit.

"Then," he continued, "I identified about a dozen of books we already have in the library. I was thinking that we could have a book booth for parents who want to give their children something educational. If some students bring their private copies of library books, it would shorten the waiting list in the library."

"If there is a waiting list," McGonagall contradicted, "it would make sense to keep the extra copies in the library."

"I'm speaking about books that are not needed very often. We don't need any extra copies of 'Rodent tails in love potions'." Snape made a face. "The topic of rodent tails doesn't even come up every year."

"Well, in that case…" the Head of Gryffindor shrugged.

"I think the educational gift booth makes sense," Dumbledore wiped caramel off his beard with a napkin. He was having waffles for breakfast. "I'll ask everybody else to check for items we can put there. – By the way, Severus, I assigned detention for Mr Malfoy and Mr Potter yesterday after you had left. I want you to take them."

"Why me?" Snape huffed. "I was not even there!"

"You have a unique way with those two. Nobody else can make them behave like you do." Dumbledore smiled beatifically.

"Compliments won't make me agree!" snarled Snape.

"I don't need to bribe you with compliments," Dumbledore pointed out. "I am your employer. I can order you to do it. But I wanted you to feel better about it."

"Thank you," Snape pressed through gritted teeth. "Did you specify when and how long the detention will be?"

"No, I'll leave that to you," the beatific smile was back in place. "I only told them to come to your office at the beginning of lunch break. I didn't want to send them in the evening and spoil your advent calendar fun."

That was why Severus Snape spent his lunch break with his two least favourite students. First, the potions master had been disgruntled but then inspiration hit him. He had his volunteers.

Potter protested when he was ordered to drink a potion he knew nothing about but Snape had pointed out that the boy didn't have the same problem when the unknown potion came with chocolate and the boy obeyed.

"This tastes vile!" he complained.

"You are right, Harry!" Malfoy agreed. "Like most of the time."

"Do you think so, Draco?" Potter asked shyly.

"Of course!" insisted the Malfoy heir. "You are very bright!"

"And you are the most handsome boy of the school. I envy you for your well-groomed hair." Potter sighed. Then he turned to Snape abruptly. "What did you give us, you evil git? I despise even the thought of you."

Snape smirked and held up an empty vial. "A special serum that compels the drinker to tell the truth. Unasked."

"How dare you!" cried Draco. "My father will hear about this! Oh, I love telling on people!"

"Mr Malfoy, I can make Mr Creevey remove Pansy's blouse in that little picture of you two. If you don't want to marry the girl before New Year's Day, I suggest we keep this little experiment between ourselves."

"Your quick thinking when it comes to blackmail is inspiring!" breathed Draco. "You are my model Slytherin!"

Potter rolled his eyes.

The rest of lunch break, Snape listened to the two boys complimenting each other and him (although when it came to the potions master, Potter didn't compliment but insult), the food, the house elves and the architecture of the castle. When they started discussing their love lives, Snape ordered them to stay in his office – he did not need any more blackmail material – while he went to the storeroom to sort through some ingredients.

In the evening, Snape announced that Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff was to open the calendar window. Pomona Sprout would have his hide if her house was overlooked.

Hannah broke her treat in two and shared with her best friend, Ernie McMillan.

As soon as the chocolate touched their tongues, the two Hufflepuffs turned into giant canaries in puffs of yellow feathers.

They twittered excitedly and then started to race each other around the table, hitting their housemates over the heads with their wings playfully.

The effect lasted for less than ten minutes but when the two badgers turned back into people they collapsed in their seats, giggling like mad.

"Well, that looked like good fun," commented the headmaster.

Several of the teachers agreed, and of course the old coot awarded the Weasley twins and Gryffindor house points for the funny display. Snape was seething.


	20. 20

…20…

The twentieth of December promised to be a good day. When Snape walked up to the Great Hall, he met Hagrid in the Entrance Hall. The gamekeeper joined the potions master and the continued together to the Head Table.

"We got some fresh snow last night," the half-giant said as they walked up the aisle between house tables. "I bet the kids will enjoy that! Especially since it's sunny and there is no wind today. An ideal day to play in the snow."

"That's great," Snape agreed. Not that he had a thing for playing in the snow but if the students played in the snow, they were not going to be inside the castle. And, since they wanted to go outside after lessons, they were bound to be well-behaved during lessons. Even teenagers were not stupid enough to provoke a teacher on a day like that.

"Did you look out of the window?" Dumbledore asked when he sat down at the Head Table a little later.

"The dungeons happen to not have windows," Snape reminded the headmaster, "but Hagrid told me about the snow."

"I was thinking of ending the lessons a bit early today since it's so nice outside. A half hour seems appropriate and the teachers will be able to adjust their lessons to that easily enough. Oh, and I was going to ask you, Severus, to keep an eye on the kids. We need to finalize our preparations for the bazar, and you did so much extra work for it already. You deserve a little break."

"Only you would consider keeping an eye on Malfoy and Potter having a go at each other in the snow a break," Snape replied sourly. "But I'll do it, of course." He had learned a long time ago that it was no good to discuss things like that with the old man.

"Excellent! Who would you put in charge of the buffet, I wanted to ask you."

"Between whom do I have to choose?"

"Sybil and Minerva both volunteered," Dumbledore made a face. "And you know how they are."

"If you choose Sybil, you will have drunk customers all over the place," Snape pointed out. "And you could argue that Minerva has seniority."

It was Dumbledore's turn to make a face. "Have you learned nothing, dear boy? You never use a woman's age as an argument for anything!"

"Then say you have tried her Christmas cooking and were thrilled!"

"That may be an idea I can work with," Dumbledore beamed. Then his face fell. "I don't think any of the two plans to cook personally."

Snape shrugged. "But if she's a good cook, she can tell the house elves better what to make."

"Ah, I knew I had to ask a Slytherin. Excellent, Severus, excellent!"

Like Snape had anticipated, the lessons of the day passed quietly. The students were well-behaved and hard-working. As a reward, they were allowed to leave the castle a half hour earlier to play.

Snape donned the warmest cloak he owned and a black fur hat and stomped after the children. He conjured an armchair on the top of the hill, a little to the side, so that he could see what was going on without being in the thick of it.

Like he had predicted, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy plus their respective friends were at each other's throats within moments after leaving the castle.

"Snowball war!" crowed Potter and hit Malfoy right in the face with an icy missile.

"You are going to pay for that!" spluttered Malfoy before he retaliated.

Snape waved his wand lazily and both boys were hit by snowballs in the face. "You will not aim at anybody's face," Snape drawled in a magically amplified voice.

The spell worked smoothly. Whenever one of the students hit another in the face, a snowball formed in midair and hit them, too. It was comic to watch.

To the left, the younger students had started to build a snowmen army. There had been a large number of snowmen before but the snowstorm had destroyed them. Snape called for a house elf and ordered the tiny creature to provide carrots for noses, coals for eyes and little snippets of paper the students could transfigure into scarfs and hats if they wanted them for their snowmen.

One brave Hufflepuff first-year walked up to the potions master and asked for help making a top hat with a pheasant feather for decoration. Snape talked the boy patiently through the process when he realised that the child was following his instructions diligently. The potions master didn't love teaching but he certainly wasn't going to stop a student who was trying to learn.

Once the hat was ready, the Hufflepuff thanked Snape profusely before he hurried back to his friends swinging the hat like a trophy.

Snape turned his attention back to the Malfoy-Potter battle. They were using magic now to throw the snowballs over a greater distance. The potions master just knew that this was going to escalate into spell throwing, and he was not going to allow that. He collected a good dozen of wands with one wordless expelliarmus spell. The students yelled furiously but fell quiet when they realised who had taken their wands. Then they attacked the muggle way with gusto.

Snape allowed himself a half-smile when the snowball battle had turned into just that again.

Since everything was under control, he conjured a small table and ordered tea and biscuits from the house elves.

He was just reaching for his third gingerbread heart, when he was embraced – the audacity! – from behind. "Still a sweety, I see," a female voice he had not heard in years breathed into the potions master's ear.

It may have been years since Severus Snape had met this girl in person but his reaction was a prompt one. "What are you doing here?" he asked playfully as he yanked a pink-clad arm. A smallish girl with curly blond hair slid around him and landed in his lap.

"Why, I've come to spend the holidays with my old master, of course!" The blonde wiggled to sit more comfortably. "When I got your card, I asked my headmistress for leave and she granted it. I can stay until the sixth of January."

"Splendid!" replied Snape. He pulled his cloak around the blonde to make sure she didn't freeze since the Scottish winter was obviously a lot colder than the Viennese going by her miniskirt and light boots. And, as a benefit, it was less obvious that he had his arms full of girl if she was covered by the black cloak. The pink outfit she was wearing was a bit conspicuous.

"Can I have my old room?" the girl interrupted Snape's musings. She pulled the cloak tighter around her small frame.

"I'm afraid the castle removed it when you left," the potions master pointed out.

The blonde shrugged. "I made it once, I can make it again."

"You are not going to invite your friends there, are you?" Snape asked carefully. It was going to be difficult enough with this one there, but if the whole lot came… he was too old for that!

"I tried," the blonde hung her head, "but they can't come. They have their own obligations. Can you believe it, some of them even got married!" She shuddered.

Their conversation was interrupted when Harry Potter cried at the top of his lungs: "Snape has a girlfriend!"

The potions master tried to free his wand arm from the chaos of girl and cloak but the blonde – his former apprentice – beat him to it easily. One wave of her wand and Potter's school uniform turned pink.

"Very pretty!" commented Draco Malfoy, to find himself dressed in the same colour a moment later.

"Oh, it's you!" cried Potter and approached the potions master and his armful. "Welcome back!" The wizarding hero and the apprentice shook hands. "You haven't changed one bit! Not like our Professor here. – He has become old and snarky in your absence." The last was stage whispered.

"Never insult my master," the blonde was not uncomfortable at all conversing with Harry Potter while sitting in Snape's lap. On the contrary, she had the air as if this was how she spoke to people all the time. "Or I may have to seriously hex you."

Potter laughed. "What are you going to do to me? I am already pink!"

The blonde smiled mischievously and pointed her wand at the boy.

"Oi! I didn't do anything!" cried Potter.

"What did she do, mate?" asked Ronald Weasley who had joined the group.

"She pinched my backside!" Potter protested. "That hurt and was entirely undeserved!"

"Are you provoking women again?" Ginny Weasley asked the Golden Boy strictly. "Offering your backside for pinching?"

Malfoy roared with laughter and that, of course, was a mistake. Potter lunged at him and pushed the other boy into the snow head first.

"Oh, I missed this," laughed the apprentice.

Later, the blonde accompanied Snape to dinner, where she was greeted by the other teachers. Dumbledore laughed happily because the girl and he had chosen the same colour of robes for the occasion. "You see, my dear," he chuckled, "deep inside I knew that you were going to come."

After dinner, Snape chose Alwin Smyth – the boy who had made the pheasant feather hat – to open the advent calendar. The calendar treat made the boy sing Christmas songs. The whole school joined in happily although there had been a similar candy earlier.

Snape, however, did not stay. He and his guest went down to the dungeons, where the blonde waved her wand and turned Snape's cupboard into her living quarters once again. There was a bed in a corner, but the most important feature of the added space was a swimming pool with a pool bar and all.

The potions master smiled happily. He had spent some of his best evenings by this pool.


	21. 21

…21…

The next morning, the twenty-first of December, Snape woke to the smell of fresh waffles. He sighed happily and snuggled deeper into his pillows.

"Get up, sleepyhead!"

The potions master was up in an instant. It had not been a dream! His former apprentice had come to visit!

"Good morning!" he cried.

"Come in! Breakfast is ready!" the girl cried from the cupboard.

It was like old times. Snape took a quick shower and dressed in his black swimming trunks – he had to use a summoning charm because he didn't remember where he put them all those years ago – before he entered the cupboard.

The girl had prepared a table with all Snape's favourite breakfast dishes by the pool. She was wearing a pink bikini and had put a shawl covered in flamingos around her shoulders.

The sun was shining hot and brightly by the poolside although Snape was sure it was still dark outside the castle. He smiled fondly as he remembered that the girl had spent a week perfecting her charm to put sunshine into the cupboard.

They had breakfast – coffee was seemingly still the young woman's brewing forte – before they jumped into the pool and swam a couple of rounds. They were just leaving the pool when Miffy appeared and reminded Snape that it was time to go up to the Great Hall.

"Will you accompany me, or do you prefer to stay here? I'm on breakfast duty," Snape said apologetically.

"I'll come with you," the girl stated.

The two potions masters had spent so much time in the water that they had to use magic to get ready in time for Snape's work. The Head of Slytherin donned his usual black teaching robes while his guest went for a pink dress that showed her legs off.

"You'll need robes," Snape reminded her and she conjured thin black robes which she wore open. When the girl walked, the robes fluttered behind her.

Dumbledore greeted the young potions mistress with pecks on her cheeks. "I hope you have been well," he cried merrily. "We missed you and your friends dearly." The old wizard insisted that the blonde sit in Snape's usual spot.

She and Snape didn't eat anything at the Head Table since they had already had breakfast earlier. They sipped coffee and Snape shared stories about the students with her.

"Severus," Dumbledore said when he had finished his ham and eggs, "I was thinking we should open the advent calendar in the morning today. With the bazar, things will be busy in the evening."

Snape agreed and informed the students that he was going to open the window personally. "That way no student will be in danger if the potion is risky."

"Oh, you are still ready to sacrifice yourself for those you teach," squealed the blonde and clapped her hands.

Snape blushed.

He considered sharing his treat with his guest but he didn't want to put her into harm's way if it wasn't necessary. Therefore, Snape consumed the whole piece of chocolate.

Everybody waited with baited breath but nothing happened.

"That was unspectacular," Snape mused.

"Oh, Master!" squealed the apprentice. She conjured a mirror and held it out to the black clad man beside her.

"What?" Snape asked. He saw no difference.

"You must smile!" the girl advised.

It took the potions master a couple of tries before he managed a toothy smile in front of all his students. The children gasped, and so did Snape.

His formerly crooked, yellow teeth were perfectly straight and bright white!

"This one is permanent!" cried Fred Weasley from the Gryffindor table. "There is an antidote if you prefer your old teeth."

"Twenty points to Gryffindor for brewing such a difficult potion!" cried the blonde.

"You can't give and take points. You are not a teacher," Snape pointed out.

The blonde glared at his with a raised brow.

"Twenty points to Gryffindor," Snape muttered under his breath. He thought he was going to die from embarrassment but what he felt giving points to his most hated house was nothing next to what he felt when his guest pecked him on the cheek in thanks and a couple of students cat-called. The potions master was sure he had never before blushed so hard.

With the bazar scheduled for the afternoon, lessons ended for the day before lunch. Snape and his apprentice had a quick bite in his quarters before they had to go upstairs to welcome the Dark Lord and the other guests.

"My dear!" cried the dark wizard when he spotted the pink-clad woman beside his spy. "It must have been almost a decade!" He hugged the girl.

"And you haven't aged a day!" replied the blonde. "I love these robes you are wearing!" They were a murky green and it took somebody with the Dark Lord's complexion to do the colour justice.

"Albus helped me choose them," Lord Voldemort pointed out.

"Ah, yes, he has excellent taste," the girl deadpanned. Dumbledore was wearing orange for the occasion and the colour was so gaudy, it made the apprentice's pink dress look dull in comparison.

Snape had been put in charge of the book for the students booth and his guest had, of course, volunteered to help him.

They spent all afternoon discussing books with worried parents. First they lost some potential customers after Snape pointed out that their offspring was not going to understand the book they were considering in a million years but then the blonde showed him how to point out that the book was going to be a challenge for the student in question, and wasn't that the whole point of education, to challenge the children to take on difficult problems in order to improve?

Their little book stand was sold out about an hour before the bazar was scheduled to end, so they had time to look at the other things.

The blonde bought a ladle with the Dark Mark on it – a Christmas present for her headmistress back in Vienna – and had it signed by the Dark Lord. The dark wizard felt obviously flattered and insisted the girl join him at his wending booth for a while. He was selling cursed amulets. The amulets had been made by the deatheaters and the curses were custom-made on the spot.

After the bazar, customers and sellers joined the students of Hogwarts for dinner in the Great Hall. Somehow – it must have been magic – the House tables had doubled in size.

The students enjoyed the company. Many were joined by their parents, others by idols or even possible future employers. Draco Malfoy could be seen in conversation with a Gringott's security officer, Harry Potter was talking to a couple of aurors.

Select guests had been asked to sit at the head table, among them the Dark Lord and the Minister of Magic.

After the meal, Dumbledore led the assembled witches and wizards outside to see fireworks, and then it was time for the guests to leave and the students to return to their dormitories.

Snape and his apprentice made their way to the potions master's quarters. They considered another round of swimming but truth to be told they felt to tired and went to bed instead.


	22. 22

…22…

The twenty-second of December was Saturday, and Severus Snape was grateful for it. When he first woke, he pulled his blankets tighter around his frame because firstly, it was still dark, and secondly, Dumbledore had decreed that breakfast was going to be served two hours later than usual due to the exhausting day everybody had had with the bazar. Not even the first-years had returned to their dormitories before curfew.

Of course, the potions master had breakfast in his rooms with his guest before they went upstairs to watch over the students. The girl had fresh rolls, butter and apricot jam ready when Snape entered his cupboard. The girl had always had a weakness for apricot jam for breakfast and the potions master suspected the sweet bread spread was one of the reasons the blonde had moved to Vienna after she had sat her final exams at the end of her apprenticeship.

He made a remark about it and the young woman giggled. "I didn't move to the other end of Europe because of jam, silly!"

"No?" asked the potions master. "Then why did you?" He had never understood why the girl had left. They had gotten along splendidly and he had even considered asking her out to dinner or maybe a museum when she had packed her belongings without much of a warning.

"Well, I was offered a job," the witch explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and her old master a complete dunderhead, "and it was a good way to get away from Hogwarts."

"Why would you want to move away from … Hogwarts?" Snape caught himself just before saying "me". He felt pathetic.

"You were there," cried the witch. "All my friends were looking up to you, and I suspect most of them were in love with you – not the muggle though. She had that thing with the muggle guy at the time." She looked pensive for a moment. "Anyway, you were starting to look at me differently, and I thought it would hurt my friends if I… "She sighed. "I left before I found out whether I had read the signs correctly. I was a coward."

Snape was lost for words. So she would have considered going out with him? In spite of him being a greasy grumpy old man?

"Shall we go up to the Great Hall?" the potions master asked after a couple of moments in awkward silence. He felt discussing what could have been was only going to be hurtful.

"Yes, I'd love that," the blonde nodded enthusiastically. Snape was sure she was glad to escape the situation as much as he was.

They went upstairs side by side, now discussing a potion the young potions mistress had attempted to brew before she had got Snape's card. The dark clad wizard inquired about the stirring technique the girl had used and she described it in detail.

"Are you sure the recipe said figure eights?" Snape asked as they sat down at the Head Table. "The ingredients rather call for slow circles, maybe with a small twirl every now and then, I'd say."

"I thought so, too," admitted the witch, "and I tried both. The figure eights worked better but still not good enough. I was thinking that maybe the stirring rod should be oak rather than willow."

"Willow may be too springy for your purpose," Snape agreed.

"Willow rods are tricky," the headmaster joined the conversation as he sat down. "I have a book on willow rods up in my office."

"May I look at it?" the blonde witch asked eagerly and the old wizard agreed to lend her the book for the time she stayed at the castle.

After breakfast, Snape and his young friend went down to the village of Hogsmeade. Since most of the students had chosen to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas party, Dumbledore had granted the privilege of a visit to the wizarding village to those students who were old enough and held a signed permission from a parent or guardian.

Snape had grudgingly volunteered to be one of the chaperones since his guest had asked him to go there.

The girl dragged her host to Gladrags, Honeyduke's and Scrivenshaft's claiming that she wanted to take some good British products back to Austria. Snape knew her better though. He was sure that she insisted to go there to buy him a Christmas present, and he was not going to be outdone.

The potions master bought a pair of pink gloves, a bag of pistachio filled chocolates and bottle of pink ink when the witch was not looking.

They stopped at the Three Broomsticks for lunch. Snape was glad to sit down because he had insisted on carrying the girl's purchases and now his back was hurting really badly.

The witch gave her companion a pitying smile and ordered tea and soup for them. "Let's get you warmed up a bit. I have a pain potion but it can't be taken on an empty stomach."

Madam Rosmerta's soup tasted heavenly. It was a thick creamy concoction with vegetables and herbs, noodles and small bits of meat. The landlady came with a small cauldron and refilled their bowls after a little while.

"We did not order that," Snape pointed out.

Rosmerta laughed. "It's on the house. You two make so happy faces when you eat my soup, I have sold more in the last ten minutes than the rest of the day."

"Thank you!" the blonde smiled happily. "I really missed your cooking!"

"It must have been years since I last saw you," Rosmerta said pensively. "What happened to you?"

"I finished my apprenticeship and got a job!"

"Apprenticeship?" Rosmerta cried. "We all thought that was a cover story so Severus could bring his girlfriend to the castle under Dumbledore's nose!"

Several patrons nearby nodded.

"What?" cried the potions master. "Everybody thought I was abusing my position of power over my apprentice?"

"We thought she wasn't really your apprentice," Rosmerta corrected him.

"Severus always treated me well," the blonde hurried to say loud enough for everybody to hear.

"We know that," a well-known voice joined the conversation. Harry Potter had just come in, his friends in two. "We were surprised with how much he let you get away."

"He would have killed even his Slytherins for smaller offences," Draco Malfoy agreed from a table nearby.

"You make me sound bad," the girl pouted.

"And me like I was a monster," Snape snapped.

The villagers laughed and Potter and his friends went over to the Slytherins' table. They spent the next half hour discussing the mischief Snape's apprentice and her friends had got into while they lived in Snape's quarters. Both potions experts were glad that the students knew only part of the stories.

In the evening, after dinner, Snape chose his apprentice to open the advent calendar window.

"What a splendid idea!" cried Dumbledore and the blonde beamed at her former master.

The girl unwrapped her piece of chocolate (Pink! How appropriate!) and cut it in two with her knife. She took one half and sniffed it carefully. Then she leaned towards Snape and the two discussed her findings in hushed voices.

The students waited with baited breath. They wanted to know what the day's potion did!

Finally, Snape pointed towards the Gryffindor house table and the witch got up from her seat. She put the two halves on a napkin and walked over to where the Weasley twins were sitting. The sound of her high heels echoed through the Great Hall.

"I think it would be more fitting if you had this," she told the twins sweetly. The boys gulped but what could they do?

They took the chocolate and ate it.

The effect was immediate and the assembled students roared with laughter.

The two boys had turned into girls, long hair, womanly curves and all! Several boys wolf whistled.

"Oi! Those are my brothers you are whistling at!" cried Ronald Weasley.

"You mean sisters!" crowed Malfoy. "And pretty sisters they are! Only their clothes are not fitting!" He fired a spell to the other side of the hall and the twins were suddenly clad in girls' robes.

"No spell-casting in the Great Hall!" roared Dumbledore, his voice magically amplified.

He was ignored for the twins were not going to take the change of their clothes quietly. Soon hexes were flying.

"How about we go swimming before bed?" the apprentice whispered into Snape's ear.

It was a good idea and in the mayhem that was the Great Hall, nobody noticed them leaving.


	23. 23

…23…

On the morning of the twenty-third of December, Snape was once again woken by insistent knocking on the door of his quarters. He tossed and turned, trying to tune the unwelcome sound out but at last he had to admit defeat.

Grumbling under his breath, he padded to the door. "What?" he yawned right into the face of his early visitor.

"Good morning, Professor!" chorused the two people he would least expect to turn up at his doorstep at the crack of dawn.

"Weasleys," Snape blinked.

The twins were still not their usual selves. Firstly, they still had long hair and curves, and secondly, they looked rather subdued, a look that the potions master had never seen on the mischievous boys' faces before.

"May we come in?" one of the girls said, Snape could not tell whether she was Fred or George. She was pulling the hems of her short dress awkwardly.

"Yes," the potions master sighed. It would not do to be seen with two female students in their nightwear. "Come in and sit on the sofa."

The boys obeyed.

"Why are you here?" Snape asked without preamble. He had been woken on a Sunday before the crack of dawn and felt no obligation to mollycoddle the two wrong-doers.

"We wanted to ask you for an antidote," said the twin who had so far been quiet. "I don't think we can survive the whole week."

Snape smirked. The effect of sex-changing potions lasted, depending on the exact recipe, for at least a week. Anything up to a month was possible and there were tales among potions masters of the not properly documented case of a young wizard who had turned into a witch for an entire year and given birth to a daughter. When the father turned back into a man, legend had it, the daughter turned into a son.

"There is no antidote, Miss Weasley," Snape smirked, "and I'm sure you are aware of the fact."

"That we were not able to find one, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. We didn't try particularly hard," whined the other girl.

"There is none," the apprentice chose that moment to make her appearance, clad in a lacy pink robe with feather seams. Her feet were buried in furry white bunny slippers. She leaned lazily on the frame of Snape's bedroom door.

The twins gasped. "We are terribly sorry, Professor," cried one.

"We had no idea," added the other.

Snape glared at his former apprentice. "Well done, dingbat," he snarled. "Once again, you have ruined my reputation."

The blonde pouted.

"I wouldn't exactly call it 'ruined'," one of the twins looked at the blonde admiringly.

"I thought you needed help. I have more experience with sex-changing potions than you," the blonde addressed her former master. "But if you don't need me, fine." She turned on the spot and disappeared into the bedroom.

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose. "You better follow me, Weasleys," he sighed.

The twins gasped. "Certainly not!" cried one.

"We are not that kind of girls!" added the other.

"Shut up and come," Snape snapped tiredly.

The twins obeyed reluctantly. They looked at each other, puzzled, when they found the bedroom empty. Was Snape in the bathroom.

One of the girls have a small shriek when the potions master leaned out of his cupboard. "This way, ladies!"

The two Weasleys stood rooted to the spot the moment they entered the wardrobe. "Wicked!" they chorused.

Snape smirked and went to a small table by the poolside. The blonde put a cup of strong coffee and a plate of waffles in front of him.

"Well?" the girl raised an eyebrow at the two Weasleys. She pointed at another table where various breakfast dishes were ready to choose from. The twins got themselves pancakes before they sat at the other side of Snape's table.

"How do you know so much about sex-changing potions?" one of them asked the potions mistress.

The witch blushed prettily. "A couple of years ago we," she didn't elaborate who 'we' was, "were going to play a prank on Severus."

"You were going to do what?" cried the potions master.

"We decided not to do it," the girl continued, "because firstly, why would we transform Sexy into a girl for a whole week, and secondly, you were watching out for love potions all the time. It would have been next to impossible to feed you the stuff."

"Love potions?" spluttered one of the Weasleys.

"Long story," Snape made a dismissive gesture with his fork. He finished his breakfast and as soon as he had licked the fork clean, he got up and transfigured his nightwear into swimming trunks. "You explain antidotes to the boys. Girls. Whatever. I'll go swimming."

"But Master!" the blonde complained but Snape dove into the pool with an elegant header. She sighed. "Isn't he gorgeous when he does that?"

Snape spent hours that day with preparations for the Christmas party. The blonde was busy, too. She advised the Weasley twins on how to be a proper girl.

By dinner time, Snape was exhausted. The blonde pecked him on the cheek happily as she sat beside him at the Head Table, and it was a sign of just how exhausted the potions master was that he allowed the public display of affection.

"Did you see the twins?" she asked merrily.

Snape shook his head but craned his neck obediently to see why the witch thought the twins were worth seeing. The two looked very much different from what they had looked in the morning. Their hair was arranged in elegant buns and they were wearing nice dresses in a Christmassy green.

"They decided if they had to be girls for a week," the apprentice explained, "they may as well do it properly. We discussed beauty potions. I am now a silent partner in their upcoming business."

"You invested money?" Snape gasped.

"Of course not!" the blonde made a face. "I am their advisor for womanly products."

"Very clever," Snape admitted. "Now, let me choose someone to open the advent calendar and then all I want is go to bed."

"Sounds good to me," shrugged the blonde.

Snape got up and the students fell silent immediately. There were, after all, not many windows left to open, and if you hadn't been chosen yet, you were running out of chances.

"Today's window will be opened by the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore."

"Albus?" the blonde asked in disbelief.

"He won't need help if the potion is somehow problematic," the potions master pointed out. "I'm tired and I don't want to deal with any potions accidents now."

The headmaster was thrilled. He thanked his potions instructor profusely.

"Well, let's see what this does," he then smiled and popped the chocolate into his mouth. He squealed with delight when the potion changed him into a giant pygmy puff.

The assembled girls – including the Weasley twins – squealed at the cuteness of him.

Snape watched the headmaster basking in the attention of the females for a while – the old man was petted and stroked and he positively purred.

"I think we can leave," whispered the apprentice. "We could swim a bit before bed."

"A splendid idea," admitted Snape. "And I could put some suntan lotion on you."

The blonde squealed, but nobody thought anything of it because as good as every female in the hall was squealing because of the head-pygmy puff. "Let's go at once!" She clapped her hands.

And who was Snape to deny a lady her wish?


	24. 24

…24…

The twenty-fourth of December, the day of the traditional advent calendar Christmas party, began early for Snape but he didn't mind. After a delicious meal of waffles with fruit, whipped cream and chocolate sauce, the potions mater was made sit down in a deck chair and the blonde modelled outfits she was considering for the evening for him.

"Do you think that neckline is inappropriate for a party with children present?"

Snape growled. "I think you shouldn't wear it with anybody but me present."

The girl giggled and changed magically into the next dress. It was, predictably, pink and hugged her figure in all the right places. Snape thought it was delicious although it revealed nothing and left everything to the imagination.

"That's it!" he managed to pipe. "That's the dress."

The girl beamed at him and hurried to bring him a cup of coffee.

The morning was quiet, the students – especially the females – wanted to spruce up for the party later and therefore were quick with their breakfast. After that, they disappeared to their house quarters and the castle was blissfully quiet for the teachers.

Dumbledore threw a little pre-party party in the staff room. It was delightful. Although nobody had changed into their party outfit yet, the mood was festive. The teachers enjoyed the time among their peers. For once, nobody had to watch out that the other guests behaved because the other guests were responsible adults, too. Snape, who didn't like teaching very much, was in heaven.

The assembled professors used the time to happily discuss topics they wouldn't bring up with students nearby.

Filius Flitwick, the Head of Ravenclaw, told about his youngest sister's wedding which had taken place during the last summer. The young witch, almost forty years his junior, had met an American wizard during her holidays and fallen for him head over heels. The young man was a Charms expert, just like Flitwick and they had had fun pranking unsuspecting guests during the wedding.

Sybil Trelawney entertained her colleagues with predictions of their future. She told McGonagall to expect a young Scotsman within the week ("My nephew is going to visit") and warned Snape that his association with blonde women was going to be his downfall ("Define downfall").

Punch was served and although there was very little alcohol in it – they had to attend the big party in the evening after all – the tales got bolder as lunch was served. When Dumbledore started giving details about his clothes shopping with the Dark Lord, several teachers claimed they needed to make sure that their students behaved.

Snape used the same excuse to leave and the blonde hurried after him, claiming she couldn't lose him since she didn't have the password to his quarters. Those teachers who hadn't been aware that Snape's guest was sharing his quarters whispered among themselves excitedly.

"I knew the boy had it in him!" laughed Flitwick. "And he let us believe he was an antisocial recluse all that time, the sly dog!"

Snape, of course, did not spend much time with his students. He just went to their common room and asked the seventh years to assist the younger children if they needed anything. Pansy Parkinson declared herself the make-up agony aunt for all the Slytherin girls. Snape smiled proudly at her. It sounded like a little thing but his Slytherin had found a way to make six years' worth of housemates indebted to her in one move. She was a sly thing; not always clever but certainly sly.

Once the potions master and the blonde were back in his quarters, they retreated to the pool side for a bit of relaxation before they had to get ready for the party.

The guests were supposed to arrive at four in the afternoon. That was why Severus Snape along with the other teachers assembled a quarter hour before that in the Great Hall. The buffet had been prepared by the house elves but for the sweets. The Dark Lord had insisted that he be in charge of dessert.

When the dark wizard and his entourage arrived at four o'clock sharp, they were greeted by Albus Dumbledore himself at the front doors. Anything less than a formal greeting by the headmaster himself would have been considered an affront, Snape was sure of it.

"Tom!" the headmaster stepped forward in resplendent robes of deep green combined with a hat decorated with a tiny Christmas tree and a cute squirrel decorating the tree. "What a pleasure!"

"Albus!" the Dark Lord was wearing the exact same robes and the exact same hat. "It's so good to see you!" The dark wizard was carrying a big elegant chocolate cake which he moved out of the way carefully before he exchanged kisses on the cheek with the host.

"Allow me, my Lord," Snape hurried forward to take the chocolate cake.

"Be careful, Severus," the Dark Lord said haughtily, "it took me all morning to get the frosting right."

"And it looks wonderful," Dumbledore assured him. "Severus, put the cake in the place of honour on the dessert table."

Snape took off with the cake, followed by his blonde and a caravan of deatheater, all carrying cakes and bowls of fruits, creams and puddings. The potions master coordinated the placing of dishes on the table the house elves had prepared for the purpose, his blonde witch assisted here and there.

"I thought you had left the country," Bellatrix Lestrange asked the blonde suspiciously. The two women had never been friends.

The former apprentice smiled. "I'm here to visit."

"Ah, how delightful! My dear!" The Dark Lord had come to make sure his cake had been positioned to his satisfaction. He took the blonde's hand and placed a delicate kiss on her knuckles. "I haven't seen you in years! You disappeared just when I was going to ask you to join my organisation!"

The blonde smiled back. "I got an offer from the continent which was too good to refuse." Bellatrix watched the proceedings through squinted eyes. "Of course," the young witch continued, "I couldn't stay away from my master forever. I had to come and see him for a couple of days."

The Dark Lord glared at Snape. "I never knew you had followers who call you Master, Severus."

"She's not my follower," Snape corrected the dark wizard gently. "She was my apprentice and apprentices have been calling their mentor master for centuries, if not longer."

"You mean to tell me it would have sufficed to become a teacher?" Voldemort mused. He shook his head. "It's more fun as it is," he muttered before he continued in a louder voice. "Put the vanilla mousse a little to the left, Bellatrix, and place the strawberries between it and the pavlova. We don't want the buffet to look pale."

Snape left the Dark Lord to his review of the arrangements and led his guest away by her elbow. "You have to be careful," he hissed softly, "or you'll have a dark mark before this party is over."

"Thank you for the warning," the girl whispered back.

Dumbledore waited until the Dark Lord was happy with the placement of the dishes he had brought before he called for order and greeted the assembled witches and wizards. The Dark Lord smiled benignly when he was addressed as a guest of honour.

"Severus," Dumbledore said at the end of his words of welcome, "it is tradition to begin the party with the opening of the last advent calendar window. So, if you'd please."

Before Snape could reply, the Weasley twins stepped forward.

"We know what is in the final window, having made the calendar," one of the girls said. Both twins were wearing bright orange dresses for the occasion.

"And we decided to provide enough chocolate as a treat for everyone," the other one continued.

"The potion is completely harmless," the first one hurried to promise.

Bellatrix glared at the girls suspiciously. "The Weasleys have only one daughter. I don't believe a potion you made is harmless."

"Bellatrix, they make my nose elixir!" cried Voldemort. He had chosen an elegant longish nose for the evening.

"I trust them, too," added Lucius Malfoy.

"So do I," agreed Dumbledore and it was decided. Everybody got a colourfully wrapped piece of chocolate.

The treat didn't do anything spectacular but it made the party so much better. As soon as the assembled witches and wizards had consumed the chocolate, they felt comfortable with their dancing abilities like never before, and once Dumbledore declared the dance floor open, there was always a crowd dancing, no matter what style of music was played.

Dumbledore was seen dancing the rumba with Minerva McGonagall. The Dark Lord waltzed with Bellatrix and enjoyed a tango with Snape's apprentice.

"I have been hoping for this for such a long time!" the dark wizard told the blonde as he pushed the girl into a promenade position. They glided across the floor cheek to cheek. At the end of the walk, the Dark Lord twirled the blonde before catching her and pulling her back into a closed position.

"You have been hoping to dance the tango with a person you haven't seen in years?" the blonde asked in disbelief.

"Of course, my dear, of course. I have seen a long time ago that your loyalty belongs to Severus," he stopped the blonde's answer with a raised hand. "All I could hope for is a dance. And I did hope for that, indeed."

"I'm flattered," the blonde smiled.

As soon as the music ended, she thanked the dark wizard for the dance and hurried back to the potions master's side.

The party went on until well after midnight. Snape and his guest were among the last to leave the Great Hall.

"I have been on breakfast duty the whole month," Snape told the girl as they walked down to the dungeons. "As a result, I'm entitled to a whole week off duty."

"Wonderful!" cried the apprentice. "We could go on holiday! Skiing, maybe! Or to some romantic city!"

"I was thinking about lazing by a pool for a while," Snape smiled. "I informed Dumbledore that we will go to Italy for the week."

The girl grinned. "The house elves won't tell on us?"

"Never," Snape chuckled happily.

It was going to be a great week.

Author's note: Thank you for sticking with me for this piece of silliness, dear readers. I wish you all a Merry Christmas!


End file.
